by For years, Iran-backed Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, did such a good job harassing American partners in the Middle East that Pentagon war planners began copying some of their tactics.
Noting that the Houthis had managed to weaponize commercial radar systems commonly available in boating stores and make them more portable, a top American commander challenged his Marines to come up with something similar. As of September 2022, Marines in the Baltic Sea were retrofitting Houthi-inspired mobile radar systems.
So as soon as the Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea, senior Pentagon officials knew they would be difficult to tame.
As the Biden administration approaches its third week of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, the Pentagon is trying to thread an incredibly small needle: making a dent in the Houthis’ ability to attack Navy and commercial vessels without dragging in U.S. United to a protracted war. .
It’s a difficult task, and even more so because the Houthis have perfected irregular warfare tactics, U.S. military officials say. The group doesn’t have many large weapons depots to bomb with American warplanes: Houthi fighters are constantly on the move with missiles they launch from pickup trucks on remote beaches before driving away.
The first barrage of U.S.-led airstrikes nearly two weeks ago hit nearly 30 locations in Yemen, destroying about 90 percent of the targets hit, Pentagon officials said. But even with that high success rate, the Houthis retained about 75 percent of their ability to fire missiles and drones at ships transiting the Red Sea, those officials acknowledged.
Since then, the Pentagon has carried out seven more rounds of strikes. And the Houthis have continued their attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea.
“There is a level of sophistication here that cannot be ignored,” said Gen. Joseph L. Votel, who led the U.S. military’s Central Command from 2016 to 2019, as Saudi Arabia sought to defeat the Houthis in Yemen.
The Pentagon’s strategy so far has been to place armed Reaper drones and other surveillance platforms in the skies over Yemen, so that American warplanes and ships can attack mobile Houthi targets as they appear.
On Monday night, the United States and Britain struck nine sites in Yemen, striking multiple targets at each location. Unlike most previous attacks, which were more targets of opportunity, the night attacks were planned. They hit radars, as well as drone and missile sites and underground weapons storage bunkers.
This middle ground reflects the administration’s attempt to undermine the Houthis’ ability to threaten merchant and military vessels, but without attacking with such force as to kill large numbers of Houthi fighters and commanders, which could unleash even more chaos in the region.
But officials say they will continue to try to hit moving targets while analysts look for more fixed targets.
After nearly a decade of Saudi airstrikes, the Houthis are adept at hiding what they have, placing some of their launchers and weaponry in urban areas and firing missiles from the back of vehicles or tractors before escaping.
And weapons that are destroyed are soon replaced by Iran, as an endless stream of dhows ferry more weaponry to Yemen, U.S. officials say.
Even an apparently successful U.S. commando operation on Jan. 11 that seized a small ship carrying ballistic and cruise missile components to Yemen came at a cost: The Pentagon said Sunday that the status of two Navy SEALs reported missing during The operation had been changed to dead after an “exhaustive” 10-day search. Navy commandos, backed by helicopters and drones flying overhead, boarded the small boat and seized the propulsion and guidance systems, warheads and other items.
The Houthis are believed to have had underground assembly and manufacturing sites even before Yemen’s civil war began in 2014. The militia seized the country’s army arsenal when it seized Sana, the capital, a decade ago. Since then, it has amassed a diverse and increasingly lethal arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles and one-way attack drones, most supplied by Iran, military analysts said.
“The diversity of their arsenal is mind-boggling,” said Fabian Hinz, an expert on missiles, drones and the Middle East at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, has also helped. Senior Houthi commanders studied with Hezbollah trainers in Lebanon about, above all, how to be adaptable, said Hisham Maqdashi, an internationally recognized defense adviser to the Yemeni government.
Hezbollah “trained them to be able to adapt to the changes of the war in Yemen,” Maqdashi said in an interview. “They were not trained in specific aspects, but in how to be very dynamic.”
That leaves the United States and its coalition partners with only three viable options, given the parameters of President Biden’s strategic objectives in Yemen, military analysts say. They could seize weapons arriving by sea from Iran; find the missiles, which requires extensive intelligence; or attack launch sites.
The third option is the most difficult. Houthi militants are believed to hide mobile missile launchers in a variety of locations, from inside sewers to under highway overpasses. They move easily for hasty throws.
The Houthis’ mobile maneuvers worked so well against Saudi Arabia that the Marines began an experimental effort to copy them. They developed a mobile radar, essentially a Simrad Halo24 radar (you can get one for about $3,000 at Bass Pro Shops) that can be installed on any fishing boat. It takes five minutes to set up. The Marines, like the Houthis, have been researching how to use radar to send data about what is happening at sea.
Lt. Gen. Frank Donovan, now vice commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, noticed what the Houthis were doing with radar when he led a Fifth Fleet amphibious task group operating in the southern Red Sea. Trying to figure out how the Houthis were targeting ships, General Donovan soon realized that the Houthis were installing available radars on vehicles on the coast and moving them around.
He challenged his Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion to develop a similar system.
