“I doubt they will tack American naval ships because that would invite too strong our response, they’re just gonna keep picking off the cargo and tanker ships.”
The Houthis are barely technological. They have been given sophisticated weapons. But they have little in the way of assets to find ships other than the Mark I eyeball. The radars on mountain tops are probably either damaged or being jammed. The cargo ships are turning off their beacons while they’re in range.
Originally, they were hitting individual ships and said they were only hitting those that were Israeli or dealing with Irael. Probably they were using info gathered by an Iranian ship in the region. But they’ve hit a number of ships that should not be in the categories they said they were going after. They have and will fire at warships probably because they can’t tell them from any other ship. If the USN is in the area, they may be targeted. Even if the missile isn’t heading for them, they will try to hit it. Anything we learn from success or failure is a gift.
Just like with NATO countries using their troops covertly in the Ukraine it is probably Iranian troops embedded with the Houthies that are shooting the missiles.