How a Ragtag Militia in Yemen Became an Agile American Enemy

For years, Iran-backed Yemeni rebels known as the Houthis have plagued America's partners in the Middle East so well that Pentagon war planners began copying some of their tactics.

A senior U.S. commander noted that the Houthis had managed to weaponize and make more portable commercial radar systems widely available in boat shops, and challenged his Marines to come up with something similar. In September 2022, Marines in the Baltic Sea adapted Houthi-inspired mobile radar systems.

So senior Pentagon officials knew as soon as the Houthis started attacking ships in the Red Sea that they would be difficult to tame.

As the Biden administration approaches its third week of airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, the Pentagon is trying to thread an impossibly small needle: making a dent in the Houthis' ability to hit commercial and naval vessels without the United States in a protracted war. .

It's a difficult task, made all the more so because the Houthis have perfected irregular warfare tactics, U.S. military officials say. The group does not have many large weapons depots that American fighter jets can bomb. Houthi fighters are constantly on the move, launching missiles from pickup trucks at remote beaches before storming off.

The first barrage of American-led airstrikes nearly two weeks ago hit nearly 30 locations in Yemen, destroying about 90 percent of the affected targets, 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, these officials acknowledged.

Since then, the Pentagon has carried out seven more rounds of attacks. And the Houthis have continued their attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea.

“There's a level of sophistication here that you can't ignore,” 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.

So far, the Pentagon's strategy has been to deploy armed Reaper drones and other surveillance platforms in the skies over Yemen, allowing US warplanes and ships to strike Houthi mobile targets as they emerge.

On Monday evening, the United States and Britain attacked nine locations in Yemen, hitting multiple targets at each location. Unlike most previous attacks, which were more targeted by opportunities, the night attacks were planned. They hit radars, 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 ships and military vessels, but not strike so hard as to kill large numbers of Houthi fighters and commanders, potentially creating even more chaos in the region unleash.

But officials say they will continue to try to hit mobile targets while analysts look for more fixed targets.

After nearly a decade of Saudi airstrikes, the Houthis have become adept at hiding what they have, planting some of their launchers and weapons in urban areas and firing missiles from the backs of vehicles or tractors before blasting away.

And the weapons that are destroyed are quickly replaced by Iran, while an endless stream of dhows ferry more weapons to Yemen, US officials say.

Even an apparently successful U.S. commando operation on Jan. 11 that seized a small boat carrying ballistic missile and cruise missile parts bound for Yemen came at a cost: The Pentagon said Sunday that the status of two Navy SEALs who served as officers during the operation were reported missing, turned up dead after an 'exhaustive' ten-day search. Navy commandos, backed by helicopters and drones hovering overhead, had boarded the small boat and seized propulsion and guidance systems, nuclear warheads and other items.

The Houthis are believed to have had underground assembly and production sites even before Yemen's 2014 civil war. The militia seized the country's military arsenal when it took over the capital Sana a decade ago. Since then, the country has amassed a diverse and increasingly deadly arsenal of cruise and ballistic missiles and drones for one-way strikes, most of them supplied by Iran, military analysts say.

“It's mind-boggling, the diversity of their arsenal,” 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. Top Houthi commanders primarily studied under Hezbollah trainers in Lebanon how to adapt, said Hisham Maqdashi, a defense adviser to the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

Hezbollah “trained them to adapt to the changes of the war in Yemen,” Mr. Maqdashi said in an interview. “They didn't train them in the details, 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 commandeer the weapons coming from Iran by sea; find the missiles, which requires extensive intelligence; or attack the launch sites.

The third option is the most difficult. Houthi militants are believed to be hiding mobile rocket launchers in various locations, from inside culverts to under highway overpasses. They are easy to move for hasty launches.

The Houthi 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 placed on any fishing boat. Setting up takes five minutes. The Marines, like the Houthis, have been exploring how to use the radars to send back data about what's happening at sea.

Lt. Gen. Frank Donovan, now vice commander of the United States Special Operations Command, noticed what the Houthis were doing with the radar while leading a Fifth Fleet amphibious task force operating in the southern Red Sea. In an attempt to figure out how the Houthis were targeting ships, General Donovan quickly realized that the Houthis were mounting off-the-shelf radars on vehicles on the coast and moving them.

He challenged his Second Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion to develop a similar system.