MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA Houthi Air Defense OE Watch Commentary: Since the start of 2020, Houthi-affiliated media outlets have focused extensively on their purported air defense capabilities. The accompanying excerpted article, from the semi-official Yemeni daily al-Thawra, provides an overview of these claims. It notes that per official Yemeni sources, between 2015 and 2019, they struck 212 coalition aircraft, including F15s, F16s, Apaches, Blackhawks, MQ-9 Reapers, MQ-1 Predators, Wing Loongs, CH-4s, Eurofighter Typhoons and other aircraft employed by the Saudi-led coalition. In August 2019, the Houthis for the first time unveiled two of their air defense systems. The first, called “Fater-1,” consists of 3M9 missiles from a Soviet-era air defense system (/Kvadrat), likely salvaged from the pre-2011 Yemeni military arsenal. Per the Houthis, their Fater-1 missiles entered service in October “Thaqib-3” Missiles (foreground). 2017. The second system, which they have dubbed the “Thaqib-1,” is a modified Source: Military Media via ansarollah.com, https://www.ansarollah.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ photo_%D9%A2%D9%A0%D9%A2%D9%A0-%D9%A0%D9%A2-%D9%A2%D9%A3_%D9%A1%D9%A9- R-73 (AA-11 Archer) short-range air-to-air adapted for surface-to-air use. %D9%A3%D9%A8-%D9%A2%D9%A8-1.jpg, no copyright Per the Houthis, it was first used in September 2017. In February 2020, the Houthis unveiled two additional air defense system missiles, the “Thaqib-2” and “Thaqib-3.” The former is a repurposed R-27 (AA-10 Alamo) air-to-air missile and the latter a repurposed R-77 (AA-12 Adder) air-to-air missile, likely salvaged from Yemeni stocks that accompanied an order of MiG-29SMTs delivered in the mid-2000s. Per the Houthis, these missiles were first employed in 2016 to target coalition F15s and F16s; according to the accompanying passage, the Thaqib-3s are to be integrated into a “Mersad” system, the name given to an Iranian mid-range AD system that entered service in 2010. According to the accompanying passage from a report by the Yemeni think Abaad Center for Studies & Research, Iranian Quds Force leader Qassim Soleimani was focused on transferring Iranian air defense systems to the Houthis in Yemen shortly before being killed by an early- January in . Per the report, “48 air defense systems” that are likely “a copy of the Russian S-300,” with parts from the Iranian Bavar-373 system, were “smuggled in pieces and transported to Yemen by sea.” Perhaps in reference to the Iranian systems, the head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, recently claimed that the Russian missiles currently in use “will be the prelude to more advanced and effective defense systems in addressing hostile air targets.”End OE Watch Commentary (Winter) “These defensive systems will change the course of the battle, and they will be the prelude to more advanced and effective defense systems in addressing hostile air targets.”

الدفاعات الجوية تحصد 212 طائرة للعدوان :Source “Air Defense Harvest: 212 Adversary Aircraft,” al-Thawrah, 27 February 2020, http://althawrah.ye/archives/607838

The outcome of the Yemeni air defense’s harvest of the Saudi-Emirati-American aggression exceeded 212 of various types and country of origin. They were struck by Yemeni air defenses over the past 5 years, according to research carried out by al-Thawra based on data from the Ministry of Defense, the spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces and the spokesman for the Yemeni Air Force.

نفوذ إيران يف اليمن بعد سليامين ..الحوثيون بني االحتواء واإلنتقام للجرنال :Source “Iranian Influence in Yemen Post-Sulaimani… The Houthis Between Containment and Revenge for the General,”Abaad Studies & Research Center, January 2020, https://abaadstudies.org/pdf-42.pdf

Before Sulaimani’s killing, information obtained by Abaad indicates that the Iranian general has supervised his [Quds Force’s] latest operations in Yemen, smuggling 48 air defense systems that can hunt for coalition aircraft to the Houthis (Information monitored by Yemeni intelligence indicates that the system is a copy of the Russian S-300 and some of its parts may be from the Iranian Bavar-373 system). Information says that the systems were smuggled in pieces and transported to Yemen by sea over a long period of time. The systems are believed capable of hitting warplanes at high altitudes. The name of the system is unknown, but intelligence indicates that some missile parts were in the Iranian ship that the United States confiscated in the Arabian Sea early last December 2019.

مواصفات مدهشة ملنظومات الدفاع الجوي املطورة محليا :Source “Remarkable Specifications for the Locally Developed Air Defense Systems,” al-Thawrah, 24 February 2020. http://althawrah.ye/archives/613784

Even though they are still being developed as part of the “Mersad” system according to the Air Force, the [Thaqib-3s] entered service in December 2016 and scored precise hits on two F15s in Saada and an F16 in Najran… The four air defense systems that have been developed locally so far are not the end nor everything that can be done, rather the beginning in a long path of Yemeni development and innovation. According to Field Marshal Mahdi Al- Mashat, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and head of the Supreme Political Council, “These defensive systems will change the course of the battle, and they will be the prelude to more advanced and effective defense systems in addressing hostile air targets.”

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