Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media has reported, potentially raising the stakes in their ongoing attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways.
The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unnamed official but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine.
But the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the United States and its allies, which have so far been able to down any missile or bomb-carrying drone that comes near their warships in Middle East waters.
The Houthis’ main benefactor, Iran, 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 defence systems employed by America and its allies, including Israel.
“The group’s missile forces have successfully tested a missile that is capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 8 and runs on solid fuel,” a military official close to the Houthis said, according to the RIA report.
The Houthis “intend to begin manufacturing it for use during attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel.”
Mach 8 is eight times the speed of sound.
Russia has maintained close ties with Iran, relying on Iranian bomb-carrying drones to target Ukraine.
Russian state media, particularly its Arabic-language services, have closely reported on Yemen’s years-long civil war that pits the Iran-backed Houthis against forces of the internationally backed Yemeni government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition.
Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds higher than Mach 5, could pose crucial challenges to missile defence systems because of their speed and manoeuverability.
China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims it has already used them on the battlefield in Ukraine.
In Yemen, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthi rebels’ secretive supreme leader, boasted about the rebels’ weapons efforts at the end of 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 coming 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,” Mr al-Houthi said, without elaborating.
The Houthis have attacked ships since November, saying they want to force Israel to end the war in Gaza, which has seen over 31,000 Palestinians killed in the besieged strip.
But the ships attacked have increasingly had little or no connection to Israel, the US or other nations involved in the war.