DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russian state media reported Thursday, potentially easing their continued attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the surrounding waterways against the backdrop was raised. of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The report by state news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed official but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow pursues an aggressive counter-Western foreign policy amid the tough war against Ukraine.
However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted at “surprises” they are planning for the battles at sea to counter the United States and its allies, who have so far been able to shoot down any missile or bomb-carrying drone flying nearby from their warships in the Middle East. waters.
Meanwhile, Iran and the US reportedly held indirect talks in Oman, the first in months amid long-simmering tensions over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program and attacks by its allies.
Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, claims to have a hypersonic missile and has widely armed the rebels with the missiles they now use. Adding a hypersonic missile to their arsenal could pose a more formidable challenge to the air defense systems deployed by America and its allies, including Israel.
“The group’s missile forces have successfully tested a missile that can reach speeds of up to Mach 8 and run on solid fuel,” a military official close to the Houthis said, according to the RIA report. The Houthis “plan to begin production it could be used during attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel.”
Mach 8 is eight times the speed of sound.
Russia has close ties with Iran and relies on Iranian bomb-carrying drones to attack Ukraine. Russian state media, and especially its Arabic-language services, have closely covered Yemen’s years-long civil war, pitting the Iran-backed Houthis against forces of the internationally backed Yemeni government backed by a Saudi-led coalition.
Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds greater than Mach 5, could pose critical challenges to missile defense systems due to their speed and maneuverability.
The danger of a hypersonic missile depends on how maneuverable it is. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory where anti-missile systems like the US-made Patriot can anticipate and intercept their path. The more irregular the missile’s flight path, such as a hypersonic missile that can change direction, the more difficult it becomes to intercept.
It is believed that China is pursuing the weapons, just like America. Russia claims it has already used them on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, speed and maneuverability do not guarantee that the missile will successfully hit a target. Ukraine’s air force said in May it had shot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile carrying a Patriot battery.
In Yemen, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the secretive supreme leader of the Houthi rebels, boasted about the rebels’ weapons efforts in late February.
“We have surprises that the enemies do not expect at all,” he warned at the time.
A week ago he similarly warned: “What is to come is greater.”
“The enemy … will see the level of achievements of strategic importance that place our country in its capabilities among the limited and numbered countries in this world,” al-Houthi said, without elaborating.
After capturing Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014, the Houthis looted government arsenals, which contained Scud missiles and other Soviet-era weapons.
When the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict in Yemen in 2015, the Houthi arsenal became increasingly targeted. Soon – and despite Yemen having no missile production infrastructure of its own – newer missiles fell into the hands of the rebels.
Iran has long denied arming the Houthis, likely due to a years-long United Nations arms embargo on the rebels. However, the US and its allies have seized several arms shipments destined for the rebels in Middle Eastern waters. Weapons experts have also tied Houthi weapons seized on the battlefield back to Iran.
Iran now also claims to have a hypersonic weapon. In June, Iran unveiled its Fattah, or “Conqueror” in Farsi, missile, which it described as hypersonic. It described another as being in development.
Iran’s mission to the U.N. did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, nor did the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols Middle East waterways.
The Israeli army – which has also been under Houthi fire since the war against Hamas broke out on October 7 when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage – declined to comment.
Also Thursday, The Financial Times reported that the US and Iran held indirect talks in Oman in January “to end attacks on ships in the Red Sea.” The last known round of such talks took place last May.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA indirectly acknowledged the talks, but emphasized that they were “limited only to negotiations on lifting anti-Iranian sanctions.”
The U.S. State Department did not immediately acknowledge the conversations or comments.
The Houthis have attacked ships since November and say they want to force Israel to end the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians in the besieged strip. However, the ships attacked have fewer or no ties to Israel, the US or other countries involved in the war.
But the attacks have raised the profile of the Houthis, whose Zaydi people ruled a thousand-year kingdom in Yemen until 1962. Adding a new weapon increases that cachet and puts more pressure on Israel after a ceasefire failed to hold. Gaza before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Earlier in March, a Houthi missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, killing three crew members and forcing the survivors to abandon ship. It was the Houthis’ first fatal attack on shipping.
Other recent Houthi actions include an attack last month on a fertilizer-carrying cargo ship, the Rubymar, which later sank after drifting for several days, and the downing of a US drone worth tens of millions of dollars.
Another suspected Houthi attack targeted a ship in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, but missed the ship and caused no damage, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said.
Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said he would not be surprised if Iran handed over a new hypersonic weapon to the Houthis. The question, however, is how maneuverable such a weapon would be at hypersonic speeds and whether it could hit moving targets such as ships in the Red Sea.
“I don’t rule out the possibility that the Houthis have a system that has some ability to maneuver to some extent,” Hinz said. “It is also possible that the Iranians will transfer new equipment for the Houthis to test.”