Posted on 01/10/2024 8:00:47 PM PST by texas booster
Over just a few years, Houthi rebels in Yemen have amassed a remarkably diverse array of anti-ship weaponry, incorporating both cruise and ballistic missiles, which they have recently used to threaten shipping in the Red Sea. The critical role that Iran has played in this build-up raises broader questions about Tehran’s regional strategy.
Yemen’s Ansarullah (Houthi) movement has been threatening shipping in the Red Sea with an increasingly diverse and capable range of anti-ship missiles. The attacks are putting pressure on commercial cargo vessels on a vital trade route and the developing naval coalition that is trying to ensure freedom of navigation in those waters.
Iran is the key source for Houthi anti-ship missile technology, except for a few obsolescent Soviet-era systems and slightly less antiquated Chinese designs. Anti-ship missiles, along with uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) and speedboats, have become the group’s weapons of choice in its ongoing campaign against shipping in the Red Sea.
Houthi forces have possessed anti-ship missiles for almost a decade now, using them to harass military and commercial maritime traffic. It has also been a period during which the group’s ability to threaten ships has undergone significant enhancement. When Houthi forces took control of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, in late 2014 and early 2015, they acquired their first anti-ship missiles in the form of obsolescent Soviet-made P-21 and P-22- missiles (RS-SSC-3 Styx), as well as the slightly more modern Chinese C-801 (YJ-81/CH-SS-N-4 Sardine), from Yemeni military stocks.
Designated Rubezh B21/B22 and Al-Mandab 1, these missiles are still paraded by the Houthis, but it is unclear if they remain operational or how many they possess. More critically, though, the Houthi forces have gotten their hands on new, better equipment since those early acquisitions.
(Excerpt) Read more at iiss.org ...
“The Chinese do not.”
Chinese flags and lettering might work well.
Biden’s master knows how to deal with troublemakers, and would be delighted to do so.
These things and their controlling radars can probably be vehicle mounted.
Smoke would blind missiles visually and aluminum foils strips blasted into the air would blind missile radar.
Open hull rustbuckets could make for nearly worthless targets and anti-missile technology could be placed on them.
A rustbucket made resistant to sinking could sail parallel to the merchant ship.
“Many suspect that they “leak” info to our enemies.”
Likely the same crowd that complained about our policy toward Hamas and Gaza. All of them should have been fired.
No. Only after the Biden regime came into power and did two things:
a) forced the Saudis to stop fighting the Houthis by cutting off military assistance;
b) opened the money spigots to Teheran by dropping sanctions and transferring billions in frozen assets.
There are Iranian agents working at both DOD and State and I think anyone at State working on ME policy is on their payroll.
True. I’d also target their HQ or any other facility.
It’s time for the Hooties to be turned into pink mist .
Just do it .
If Trump were president, he would simply say that for every ship that is attacked by Houthis, we will attack an Iranian naval ship at sea or even in port. The attacks would immediately stop.
Take out the launch sites.
Really?
They have closed the Red Sea to shipping. I would say that is a 100% success rate.
President Biden, the CIC.
If Trump were still in office we wouldn’t be in this mess or the one in ukraine.
They will be shooting the weapons we sent to the ukraine at our ships soon.
It is stupid and wrong for western nations to merely respond to the Houthi’s attacks. The Houthi’s should be soundly attacked IN YEMEN territory, going after their shipping docks, their commandand control centers, missile sites, air bases, arms depots, and all other Houthi military targets.
It is very interesting that we get such a whiplash swing in ME policy between the two administrations.
We all know that the State Dept is a nest of vipers and foreign agents. One hopes that administrations (on either side of the spectrum) would be a tiny bit more loyal to the citizens that pay its payroll, but that does not seem to be the case.
Also odd how the media seems top focus on the squirrels and to ignore what is happening behind the curtains.
An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?
Welp, I guess the Soviets supplied N. Korea with weapons when we were at war with them and let’s not forget Vietnam and every other opponent our country has done battle with, unless we’ve forgotten.
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