Iranian missiles and Chinese components arm Houthi advance

First nonstate actor to deploy antiship ballistic missiles

In a matter of weeks, Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthis have catapulted themselves into the heart of the conflict in the Middle East by exploiting an arsenal built from Iranian designs, Chinese dual-use components, and smuggled parts, according to a Wall Street Journal reconstruction of weapons data and United Nations reports. The militant group has stepped up attacks in the Red Sea, expanded its footprint along the Yemeni coastline, and asserted control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a crucial corridor for global energy shipments.

The Houthis, estimated at 350,000 fighters, burst out of the territory the group has held for more than a decade in western Yemen. In what the Journal described as a lightning offensive, Houthi militants seized islands in the Red Sea and expanded their dominion on the mainland, including the port city of Mokha.

The assault had been months in the making. In mid-August, the Houthis moved weapons and thousands of troops into positions around Mokha, threatening their opponents’ supply lines. They also exploited control of Yemeni telecommunications systems to listen in on rivals’ calls, to sow confusion, and to intimidate their rivals into giving up, the Journal reported.

The Houthis lack a traditional navy, but they operate a disruptive, asymmetric maritime force along Yemen’s coastline, relying on Iranian-designed land-based missiles, explosive drones, sea mines, armed fast-attack boats, and drone boats to assert control. The arsenal — which includes drones and cruise and ballistic missiles — allows the group to threaten territory more than 1,500 miles away, with longer-range weapons reaching deep into Saudi Arabia and as far as Israel.

Since declaring a Saudi shipping blockade on July 20, the Houthis have struck seven vessels in the Red Sea and one on the Gulf of Aden, four of them sailing under the Saudi flag, according to ACLED data cited by the Journal. The Houthis have also attacked Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure, targeting Aramco facilities with missiles and drones. Riyadh has not reported any damage from those attacks.

The Houthi arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles, antiship weapons, and drones draws heavily on Iranian technology and components, the Journal reported. The group can produce or modify some weapons in Yemen, while relying on Iran for more sophisticated systems and technical assistance. Many of these weapons are stored in underground facilities, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

Around 2015, the Quds Force — the external operations arm of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — began sending the Houthis components to assemble Iranian-designed missiles and drones, the Journal reported. Iranian trainers also traveled to Yemen to teach Houthi fighters how to build the weapons themselves, a transformation the Journal described as turning a ragtag guerrilla group into a high-tech army able to hit Saudi oil facilities, disrupt Red Sea shipping traffic, and threaten the U.S. military.

Among the weapons now in the Houthi inventory are Waid suicide drones, local versions of Iran’s Shahed. The group has also launched the more sophisticated Samad drone against targets in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel. The Houthis are the first nonstate actor to deploy antiship ballistic missiles adapted for Red Sea operations; the best known is the Sayyad, which uses radar reflections to search for and lock onto vessels.

A new supply source has emerged alongside Iran. Chinese companies are supplying the Houthis with dual-use goods that can be used for both military and civilian purposes — goods that are particularly critical for the group’s drone technology, according to UN reports and data gathered by arms experts.

For about a decade, the Revolutionary Guard used small fishing boats known as dhows to smuggle small arms, drone components, and missiles out of Iran to the Houthis. Many of those shipments have been intercepted by U.S. authorities and by groups in Yemen opposed to the Houthis, the Journal reported. The Houthis have also been using Djibouti, an African coastal state on the other side of the Red Sea, to transfer weapons, and are trading small arms with al-Shabaab, the Somali branch of al Qaeda, according to UN reports cited by the Journal.