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Saudi Arabia oil facilities ablaze after drone strikes

lifeisstillgood 7y ago
Is there an "observatory" that monitors drone warfare - I have heard of drones dropping grenades down tank hatches, and lots of requests from western air forces for anti drone measures but this is the first "big" target I have heard of. Plus, worryingly, this does seem a fairly automatable attack. The limiting factor for the attackers must be the supply of drones plus any concerns about wiping their geo fencing / remote self destructs built in. As someone who would get his drones from the local curry's I presume the attackers have some other supply channel ?
- malux85 7y ago
  I love the idea of an open source (or just freely available) observatory that lists drone strikes and centralizes this info!
- hos234 7y ago
  This is just US strikes - https://www.longwarjournal.org/us-airstrikes-in-the-long-war https://www.longwarjournal.org/us-airstrikes-in-the-long-war The rest of the world I guess will catch up sooner or later.
- walrus01 7y ago
  There are a number of military analysts, some amateur, with websites documenting every photo and video they've been able to obtain of Iranian domestic produced drones.
- jayalpha 7y ago
  "Plus, worryingly, this does seem a fairly automatable attack." Yes. Cheap. Easily available. Can be launched from a Camel. Don't have to attack major facilities. It is enough to attack pipelines in the desert. How much does a drone cost? Please consider: https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-War-Terrorism-Globalization/dp/0470261951 https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-War-Terrorism-Globalization...
  - benj111 7y ago
    "Can be launched from a Camel" That's a feature I wasn't expecting to hear about today.
    - jayalpha 7y ago
      Well, it was sloppy writing. But I assume the drones can be transported with Camels.
      - benj111 7y ago
        Don't spoil it for me, I had visions of a landing platform on their humps (would split in two, and fold down each side for ease of transport), and a little spinning radar dish. Obviously you'd still have the tasselled rug underneath, can I coin the name Bedouin Punk?
- jonbaer 7y ago
  https://dronecenter.bard.edu/ https://dronecenter.bard.edu/
- _xerxes_ 7y ago
  No need to wipe anything if you build it yourself. Plenty of online guides show you how with cheap Chinese parts. This is for a racing drone, but you get the idea: https://rotorbuilds.com/build/8778 https://rotorbuilds.com/build/8778
kmlx 7y ago
the facilities are big, and owned by Aramco, a $1 trillion state-owned company. their IPO events began at the Dubai Ritz just yesterday. i would assume this attack is not a coincidence.
- lifeisstillgood 7y ago
  I think that is very likely. It's hard to see how the Saudis would give in to such threats directly but there must be a calculation here - can they force the Saudis to the negotiating table with this new capability or can the US supply a missile defence system capable of stopping this? I suspect that forcing both sides to the table would be the RoW's preference? What a time to be Trumps new incoming National Security Advisor - busy morning !
  - baybal2 7y ago
    No conventional long range AA can shot down small drones flying low and slow. Short range air defence can, but as its name suggests, it's short ranged.
- JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
  Shorters using extreme tactics now.
  - phkahler 7y ago
    Or someone wanting to get in cheap. Or... or... we may never know who or why. There too much money an politics around this.
  - benj111 7y ago
    The geopolitical implications of this could put up the prices of oil more than the cost of the damage. This could actually be a net benefit for Aramco. The shorters would be better off investing in Tesla and encouraging EVs.
jk27277 7y ago
This is old news. Just happed again. Saudi Arabia lost the war https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2019/08/19/today-saudi-arabia-finally-lost-the-war-on-yemen/ https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2019/08/19/today-saudi-arabia-fin...
- why-oh-why 7y ago
  Nice source. > The Houthi have clown prince Mohammad bin Salman by the balls and can squeeze those at will. Perhaps don’t link to propaganda blogs.
  - jayalpha 7y ago
    May I assume, based on your comment 1. That prince Salman is a serious politician? I mean, give or take a bown saw? 2. That the conclusion of the former news is wrong? It looked more and more unlikely that this war can be won by Saudi Arabia. Now it looks, it might get lost. By the way, the Emirates left the war already. Wonder why. If I had to take a guess I would say that a drone attack on the Dubai airport would do wonders to their air traffic. But you never know. "The Houthi have clown prince Mohammad bin Salman by the balls and can squeeze those at will." no way. You predicted victory for Saudi Arabia.
    - dagw 7y ago
      That prince Salman is a serious politician? Of course he's a serious politician, and a skilled one at that. He has managed to greatly strengthen ties with the US, outmaneuver most of his political 'enemies', keep the flow of western weapons coming into his country and get the entire western world to kind of shrug and forget that he had a journalist murdered and cut up with a bone saw.
      - jayalpha 7y ago
        OK, I give you that you got some points. But weapons have always flown into Saudi Arabia. They have to be proven both: 1. Not very effective in this war and 2. In general not very useful in the hands of Arabs https://www.meforum.org/441/why-arabs-lose-wars https://www.meforum.org/441/why-arabs-lose-wars I don't know Saudi Arabia well enoughto judge about this political enemies. I have read he has made some progress in modernization. Hi megalomaniac "neom" project seems to have failed, at least stalled. He has alienated Qatar, he has sided with the Israelis which could backfire easily from Muslim extremists.
onetimemanytime 7y ago
This is fair game, Yemen is being starved, regardless of age, or guilt.
mysterydip 7y ago
Many places have only dealt with physical security at the ground level: fences, ID checkpoints, etc. Drones just bypassing everything by flying over have to force places to rethink that strategy.
- mschuster91 7y ago
  There isn't much to defend against a drone dropping a thermite charge or other bomblet on a facility - if the drone flies high enough even ordinary firearms or EMP/jammer weapons don't work any more.
  - anovikov 7y ago
    But ECM will. Russians reliably defend their airbases in Syria against stubbornly repeated drone strikes.
    - lifeisstillgood 7y ago
      Do you have any more details on this? (I have just realised this whole area of new military capabilities has passed me by and am trying to catch up)
    - AstralStorm 7y ago
      ECM won't do anything if the drone is automated and optically or dead reckoning guided...
      - anovikov 7y ago
        Nope, it will physically fry the electronics (that's a directed antenna...), unless electronics are seriously MIL-SPEC, properly shielded, and such, which is beyond the capacity and level of sophistication of most terrorist groups. You probably can't defeat a manned aircraft or a RQ-4 like this, but some cheap drone assembled in a garage by Palestinians, Houthi or other KGB-sponsored group, easily.
        7y ago
thecleaner 7y ago
I think Yemen war will go down in military history as one of the most successful asymmetrical war initiative.
- chappi42 7y ago
  Not so sucessful for (poor) normal Yemenis who have a failed state instead of a prosperous country which could be wonderful (culture, nature, tourism), such a shame!
  - thecleaner 7y ago
    On the dark side of things I am not sure if Yemen would ever have been too prosperous in the long term. They are bordered by one of the worst countries on the world. Saudi Arabia has funded acts of terror (9/11), harbored international criminals (several of whom fled India) and is practically a serfdom which uses Islam as its recruitment tool. On the other side is Iran which is again super messed up. So it was basically impossible for them to be prosperous for too long. I hope Saudi Arabia has to pay them lots of reparation money.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- mikhailfranco 7y ago
  Consider this: - KSA is at war with Yemen. - KSA has a land border with Yemen. - KSA army has not invaded Yemen. - KSA army is not deployed in Yemen. Some parts of Yemen have been captured by sympathetic local forces, supported by the UAE and Colombian mercenaries deployed by sea routes. https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/saudi-arabia-increases-reliance-on-african-and-latin-mercenaries-for-yemen-war-effort-following-arab-allies-withdrawal https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/saudi-arabia-incre... https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/news/hundreds-columbian-mercenaries-fight-saudi-led-coalition-yemen-964433925 https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/news/hundreds-columbian-mer... It is testament to the terrain; the capability and tenacity of the Houthis; and the lack of capability and tenacity of the KSA army. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-destroy-us-made-tank-in-southern-saudi-arabia-video/ https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-destroy-u... https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-destroy-us-made-tank-operated-by-saudi-army-video/ https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-destroy-u... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1yTb3vF35M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1yTb3vF35M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Kqsc6bA80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Kqsc6bA80
auslander 7y ago
What drone type/size? What charge was delivered, was it FPV or pre-programmed route? Stupid article, no details whatsoever.
- lifeisstillgood 7y ago
  I am also interested in that - but as they could not stop the drone bombing them they did not have that data either. however an earlier comment linked eventually to mintpressnews and a claim that they are domestically manufacturing drones (UAV-like not consumer) If these are domestically produced (presumably helped by Iran as opposed to supplied) then the bar to becoming a "threat to your neighbours" just got a lot lower - Yemen was poor before years of war. https://www.mintpressnews.com/uae-yemen-troop-withdrawal-houthi-new-drones-missiles/260253/ https://www.mintpressnews.com/uae-yemen-troop-withdrawal-hou... (No idea about the provenance of this article, but it says Houthi have drones, and they just bombed so it must have something going for it)
- auslander 7y ago
  Found it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20974932 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20974932
moksly 7y ago
It’s striking how much of the cyberpunk I read in my youth is becoming reality. Back then I though it would be cool, but now I really wish it would stop.
- imhoguy 7y ago
  Like from Mad Max 2 intro https://youtu.be/9n29c-q3_8Q https://youtu.be/9n29c-q3_8Q
huhtenberg 7y ago
Makes you wonder where the technology came from. Here's one reference from [1] - > The Borkan is a modified Scud The newer models appear to be the originals, but I find it hard to believe that Yemen could develop a radar-evading 1500km range drone on their own. Someone's helping them, no doubt. Any ideas who that might be? [1] https://www.mintpressnews.com/uae-yemen-troop-withdrawal-houthi-new-drones-missiles/260253/ https://www.mintpressnews.com/uae-yemen-troop-withdrawal-hou...
- rapsey 7y ago
  Iran obviously. That is their ally.
  - alrs 7y ago
    ...or any country that wants to see the United States drawn into a proxy war for one of its client states in the Middle East. Or a country that wants to see oil prices rise in the short-term. Or a a country that wants to make European dependence on Saudi oil untenable, and put an end to the US sanctions regime. The US is now the world's largest oil exporter, so a limited confrontation that leads to picking up slack in the global oil market and selling more arms to Saudi Arabia is very much in its interest. It could be Iran, it could be others. It could be Iran and others, which is likely, because Iran doesn't have much money to spend right now.
    - rapsey 7y ago
      Only Russia is an alternative but I highly doubt they would do it. They would not go against SA and they have always kept Iran at a distance.
      - alrs 7y ago
        I think the only suspects you can take off the list are oil-importing US client states and the LDCs of the global south. The unipolar moment is over, a Great Game is again afoot.
    - 7y ago
test234 7y ago
This is so sad.
- jayalpha 7y ago
  Well, it is definitely not good. But sad? Saudi Arabia brought ugly warfare to Yemen and the war has come back.
  - tomohawk 7y ago
    The Iranians are taking over the Middle East. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palistinian areas, Yemen. The Saudis and Egyptians are countering them. The whole area is in conflict because of the Iranian government's urge to dominate. Are there any good guys here? Probably not, but this attack on this refinery is an attack on all countries that use the oil from it. We'll all end up paying for it one way or the other. The only way out from this is developing energy sources that do not depend on this volatile area.
lifeisstillgood 7y ago
This is an interesting comment >> However, many observers consider that the Iranian role has been exaggerated, taking a fairly distant supporting role at most, with the Houthis acting very much on their own agenda, rather than as an Iranian proxy. Overall, the evidence from SIPRI data, the UN panel, and other sources, appears to support the idea that, while Iranian arms supplies have not been trivial, the primary sources of arms from the Houthis has been local, from those sections of the Yemeni army that supported them, from their former pro-Saleh allies, captured weapons, and the sort of locally assembled equipment discussed above. [#] https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2019/03/19/who-is-arming-the-yemen-war-an-update/ https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2019/03/19/who-is-a... Thanks to earlier post for the link The implication from tufts is that this is not rebels firing missiles made elsewhere but assembling parts from global (dual use?) supply chains - which does rather imply drone / UAv manufacturing is within reach of any state and most groupings.
- tomohawk 7y ago
  Without Iran, there is no Houthi force that matters. Iranian ships provide supplies. Iranian advisors train. Strategy is coordinated by Iran. https://intpolicydigest.org/2018/04/13/iran-developing-houthis-as-its-long-term-asset/ https://intpolicydigest.org/2018/04/13/iran-developing-houth...
- londons_explore 7y ago
  > which does rather imply drone / UAv manufacturing is within reach of any state and most groupings This could totally have been done by someone with a $100 drone, a grenade, and a few weeks of electronics work. Program the drone to wait 1 week, take off, fly to the target, and trigger the grenade. The fact the target was a tank of petrol will do the rest. Do this 100 times on the same night, and the attacker could have a real impact on a nations economy.
  - NeverFade 7y ago
    No, half of KSA's oil production capacity was not taken out by a $100 drone carrying a grenade. That's like saying you can bring down a massive skyscraper by hurling a lit match into its generator room. Yes, in theory it can hit the right spot at the right time to start a massive chain reaction, but the odds of that actually happening are impossibly low. Now multiply by the number of facilities that were hit, and it's the odds of winning N different lotteries with N random tickets. No, this was done with far more sophisticated military-grade attack drones, backed by robust Command and Control system. Very likely it was done by the HESA Ababil drone that Iran is known to have supplied to the Houthis and was involved in prior Houthi attacks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Ababil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Ababil Not the sort of drone you can buy on Amazon for $100.
throwawaynihil 7y ago
We don't need no water let the mother fucker burrrrn
throwawaynihil 7y ago
If only Mohammed Bonesaw and the rest of Trump's friends had been touring the facility at the time.
aussieguy1234 7y ago
It's likely that a terrorist group, sooner or later, will do some kind of drone attack on a western target.
fallingfrog 7y ago
So, Saudi Arabia kills some 80,000 civilians in Yemen, and nobody cares, then when the rebels hit a Saudi oil field, killing nobody, and just destroying a bunch of capital, and all of a sudden its terrorism and we’re going to talk about intervening on the Saudis behalf? Glad to see we’re still very clear on what is important (the property of the ruling class, oil sheiks) and what isn’t (the lives of civilians and children).

Is there an "observatory" that monitors drone warfare - I have heard of drones dropping grenades down tank hatches, and lots of requests from western air forces for anti drone measures but this is the first "big" target I have heard of. Plus, worryingly, this does seem a fairly automatable attack. The limiting factor for the attackers must be the supply of drones plus any concerns about wiping their geo fencing / remote self destructs built in. As someone who would get his drones from the local curry's I presume the attackers have some other supply channel ?

malux85 7y ago
I love the idea of an open source (or just freely available) observatory that lists drone strikes and centralizes this info!
hos234 7y ago
This is just US strikes - https://www.longwarjournal.org/us-airstrikes-in-the-long-war https://www.longwarjournal.org/us-airstrikes-in-the-long-war The rest of the world I guess will catch up sooner or later.
walrus01 7y ago
There are a number of military analysts, some amateur, with websites documenting every photo and video they've been able to obtain of Iranian domestic produced drones.
jayalpha 7y ago
"Plus, worryingly, this does seem a fairly automatable attack." Yes. Cheap. Easily available. Can be launched from a Camel. Don't have to attack major facilities. It is enough to attack pipelines in the desert. How much does a drone cost? Please consider: https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-War-Terrorism-Globalization/dp/0470261951 https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-War-Terrorism-Globalization...
- benj111 7y ago
  "Can be launched from a Camel" That's a feature I wasn't expecting to hear about today.
  - jayalpha 7y ago
    Well, it was sloppy writing. But I assume the drones can be transported with Camels.
    - benj111 7y ago
      Don't spoil it for me, I had visions of a landing platform on their humps (would split in two, and fold down each side for ease of transport), and a little spinning radar dish. Obviously you'd still have the tasselled rug underneath, can I coin the name Bedouin Punk?
jonbaer 7y ago
https://dronecenter.bard.edu/ https://dronecenter.bard.edu/
_xerxes_ 7y ago
No need to wipe anything if you build it yourself. Plenty of online guides show you how with cheap Chinese parts. This is for a racing drone, but you get the idea: https://rotorbuilds.com/build/8778 https://rotorbuilds.com/build/8778

kmlx 7y ago

the facilities are big, and owned by Aramco, a $1 trillion state-owned company. their IPO events began at the Dubai Ritz just yesterday. i would assume this attack is not a coincidence.

lifeisstillgood 7y ago
I think that is very likely. It's hard to see how the Saudis would give in to such threats directly but there must be a calculation here - can they force the Saudis to the negotiating table with this new capability or can the US supply a missile defence system capable of stopping this? I suspect that forcing both sides to the table would be the RoW's preference? What a time to be Trumps new incoming National Security Advisor - busy morning !
- baybal2 7y ago
  No conventional long range AA can shot down small drones flying low and slow. Short range air defence can, but as its name suggests, it's short ranged.
JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
Shorters using extreme tactics now.
- phkahler 7y ago
  Or someone wanting to get in cheap. Or... or... we may never know who or why. There too much money an politics around this.
- benj111 7y ago
  The geopolitical implications of this could put up the prices of oil more than the cost of the damage. This could actually be a net benefit for Aramco. The shorters would be better off investing in Tesla and encouraging EVs.

jk27277 7y ago

This is old news. Just happed again. Saudi Arabia lost the war https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2019/08/19/today-saudi-arabia-finally-lost-the-war-on-yemen/ https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2019/08/19/today-saudi-arabia-fin...

why-oh-why 7y ago
Nice source. > The Houthi have clown prince Mohammad bin Salman by the balls and can squeeze those at will. Perhaps don’t link to propaganda blogs.
- jayalpha 7y ago
  May I assume, based on your comment 1. That prince Salman is a serious politician? I mean, give or take a bown saw? 2. That the conclusion of the former news is wrong? It looked more and more unlikely that this war can be won by Saudi Arabia. Now it looks, it might get lost. By the way, the Emirates left the war already. Wonder why. If I had to take a guess I would say that a drone attack on the Dubai airport would do wonders to their air traffic. But you never know. "The Houthi have clown prince Mohammad bin Salman by the balls and can squeeze those at will." no way. You predicted victory for Saudi Arabia.
  - dagw 7y ago
    That prince Salman is a serious politician? Of course he's a serious politician, and a skilled one at that. He has managed to greatly strengthen ties with the US, outmaneuver most of his political 'enemies', keep the flow of western weapons coming into his country and get the entire western world to kind of shrug and forget that he had a journalist murdered and cut up with a bone saw.
    - jayalpha 7y ago
      OK, I give you that you got some points. But weapons have always flown into Saudi Arabia. They have to be proven both: 1. Not very effective in this war and 2. In general not very useful in the hands of Arabs https://www.meforum.org/441/why-arabs-lose-wars https://www.meforum.org/441/why-arabs-lose-wars I don't know Saudi Arabia well enoughto judge about this political enemies. I have read he has made some progress in modernization. Hi megalomaniac "neom" project seems to have failed, at least stalled. He has alienated Qatar, he has sided with the Israelis which could backfire easily from Muslim extremists.

onetimemanytime 7y ago

This is fair game, Yemen is being starved, regardless of age, or guilt.

mysterydip 7y ago

Many places have only dealt with physical security at the ground level: fences, ID checkpoints, etc. Drones just bypassing everything by flying over have to force places to rethink that strategy.

mschuster91 7y ago
There isn't much to defend against a drone dropping a thermite charge or other bomblet on a facility - if the drone flies high enough even ordinary firearms or EMP/jammer weapons don't work any more.
- anovikov 7y ago
  But ECM will. Russians reliably defend their airbases in Syria against stubbornly repeated drone strikes.
  - lifeisstillgood 7y ago
    Do you have any more details on this? (I have just realised this whole area of new military capabilities has passed me by and am trying to catch up)
  - AstralStorm 7y ago
    ECM won't do anything if the drone is automated and optically or dead reckoning guided...
    - anovikov 7y ago
      Nope, it will physically fry the electronics (that's a directed antenna...), unless electronics are seriously MIL-SPEC, properly shielded, and such, which is beyond the capacity and level of sophistication of most terrorist groups. You probably can't defeat a manned aircraft or a RQ-4 like this, but some cheap drone assembled in a garage by Palestinians, Houthi or other KGB-sponsored group, easily.
      - 7y ago

thecleaner 7y ago

I think Yemen war will go down in military history as one of the most successful asymmetrical war initiative.

chappi42 7y ago
Not so sucessful for (poor) normal Yemenis who have a failed state instead of a prosperous country which could be wonderful (culture, nature, tourism), such a shame!
- thecleaner 7y ago
  On the dark side of things I am not sure if Yemen would ever have been too prosperous in the long term. They are bordered by one of the worst countries on the world. Saudi Arabia has funded acts of terror (9/11), harbored international criminals (several of whom fled India) and is practically a serfdom which uses Islam as its recruitment tool. On the other side is Iran which is again super messed up. So it was basically impossible for them to be prosperous for too long. I hope Saudi Arabia has to pay them lots of reparation money.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
mikhailfranco 7y ago
Consider this: - KSA is at war with Yemen. - KSA has a land border with Yemen. - KSA army has not invaded Yemen. - KSA army is not deployed in Yemen. Some parts of Yemen have been captured by sympathetic local forces, supported by the UAE and Colombian mercenaries deployed by sea routes. https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/saudi-arabia-increases-reliance-on-african-and-latin-mercenaries-for-yemen-war-effort-following-arab-allies-withdrawal https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/saudi-arabia-incre... https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/news/hundreds-columbian-mercenaries-fight-saudi-led-coalition-yemen-964433925 https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/news/hundreds-columbian-mer... It is testament to the terrain; the capability and tenacity of the Houthis; and the lack of capability and tenacity of the KSA army. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-destroy-us-made-tank-in-southern-saudi-arabia-video/ https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-destroy-u... https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-destroy-us-made-tank-operated-by-saudi-army-video/ https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/houthi-forces-destroy-u... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1yTb3vF35M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1yTb3vF35M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Kqsc6bA80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9Kqsc6bA80

auslander 7y ago

What drone type/size? What charge was delivered, was it FPV or pre-programmed route? Stupid article, no details whatsoever.

lifeisstillgood 7y ago
I am also interested in that - but as they could not stop the drone bombing them they did not have that data either. however an earlier comment linked eventually to mintpressnews and a claim that they are domestically manufacturing drones (UAV-like not consumer) If these are domestically produced (presumably helped by Iran as opposed to supplied) then the bar to becoming a "threat to your neighbours" just got a lot lower - Yemen was poor before years of war. https://www.mintpressnews.com/uae-yemen-troop-withdrawal-houthi-new-drones-missiles/260253/ https://www.mintpressnews.com/uae-yemen-troop-withdrawal-hou... (No idea about the provenance of this article, but it says Houthi have drones, and they just bombed so it must have something going for it)
auslander 7y ago
Found it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20974932 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20974932

moksly 7y ago

It’s striking how much of the cyberpunk I read in my youth is becoming reality. Back then I though it would be cool, but now I really wish it would stop.

imhoguy 7y ago
Like from Mad Max 2 intro https://youtu.be/9n29c-q3_8Q https://youtu.be/9n29c-q3_8Q

huhtenberg 7y ago

Makes you wonder where the technology came from. Here's one reference from [1] - > The Borkan is a modified Scud The newer models appear to be the originals, but I find it hard to believe that Yemen could develop a radar-evading 1500km range drone on their own. Someone's helping them, no doubt. Any ideas who that might be? [1] https://www.mintpressnews.com/uae-yemen-troop-withdrawal-houthi-new-drones-missiles/260253/ https://www.mintpressnews.com/uae-yemen-troop-withdrawal-hou...

rapsey 7y ago
Iran obviously. That is their ally.
- alrs 7y ago
  ...or any country that wants to see the United States drawn into a proxy war for one of its client states in the Middle East. Or a country that wants to see oil prices rise in the short-term. Or a a country that wants to make European dependence on Saudi oil untenable, and put an end to the US sanctions regime. The US is now the world's largest oil exporter, so a limited confrontation that leads to picking up slack in the global oil market and selling more arms to Saudi Arabia is very much in its interest. It could be Iran, it could be others. It could be Iran and others, which is likely, because Iran doesn't have much money to spend right now.
  - rapsey 7y ago
    Only Russia is an alternative but I highly doubt they would do it. They would not go against SA and they have always kept Iran at a distance.
    - alrs 7y ago
      I think the only suspects you can take off the list are oil-importing US client states and the LDCs of the global south. The unipolar moment is over, a Great Game is again afoot.
  - 7y ago

test234 7y ago

This is so sad.

jayalpha 7y ago
Well, it is definitely not good. But sad? Saudi Arabia brought ugly warfare to Yemen and the war has come back.
- tomohawk 7y ago
  The Iranians are taking over the Middle East. Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palistinian areas, Yemen. The Saudis and Egyptians are countering them. The whole area is in conflict because of the Iranian government's urge to dominate. Are there any good guys here? Probably not, but this attack on this refinery is an attack on all countries that use the oil from it. We'll all end up paying for it one way or the other. The only way out from this is developing energy sources that do not depend on this volatile area.

lifeisstillgood 7y ago

This is an interesting comment >> However, many observers consider that the Iranian role has been exaggerated, taking a fairly distant supporting role at most, with the Houthis acting very much on their own agenda, rather than as an Iranian proxy. Overall, the evidence from SIPRI data, the UN panel, and other sources, appears to support the idea that, while Iranian arms supplies have not been trivial, the primary sources of arms from the Houthis has been local, from those sections of the Yemeni army that supported them, from their former pro-Saleh allies, captured weapons, and the sort of locally assembled equipment discussed above. [#] https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2019/03/19/who-is-arming-the-yemen-war-an-update/ https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2019/03/19/who-is-a... Thanks to earlier post for the link The implication from tufts is that this is not rebels firing missiles made elsewhere but assembling parts from global (dual use?) supply chains - which does rather imply drone / UAv manufacturing is within reach of any state and most groupings.

tomohawk 7y ago
Without Iran, there is no Houthi force that matters. Iranian ships provide supplies. Iranian advisors train. Strategy is coordinated by Iran. https://intpolicydigest.org/2018/04/13/iran-developing-houthis-as-its-long-term-asset/ https://intpolicydigest.org/2018/04/13/iran-developing-houth...
londons_explore 7y ago
> which does rather imply drone / UAv manufacturing is within reach of any state and most groupings This could totally have been done by someone with a $100 drone, a grenade, and a few weeks of electronics work. Program the drone to wait 1 week, take off, fly to the target, and trigger the grenade. The fact the target was a tank of petrol will do the rest. Do this 100 times on the same night, and the attacker could have a real impact on a nations economy.
- NeverFade 7y ago
  No, half of KSA's oil production capacity was not taken out by a $100 drone carrying a grenade. That's like saying you can bring down a massive skyscraper by hurling a lit match into its generator room. Yes, in theory it can hit the right spot at the right time to start a massive chain reaction, but the odds of that actually happening are impossibly low. Now multiply by the number of facilities that were hit, and it's the odds of winning N different lotteries with N random tickets. No, this was done with far more sophisticated military-grade attack drones, backed by robust Command and Control system. Very likely it was done by the HESA Ababil drone that Iran is known to have supplied to the Houthis and was involved in prior Houthi attacks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Ababil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Ababil Not the sort of drone you can buy on Amazon for $100.

throwawaynihil 7y ago

We don't need no water let the mother fucker burrrrn

throwawaynihil 7y ago

If only Mohammed Bonesaw and the rest of Trump's friends had been touring the facility at the time.

aussieguy1234 7y ago

It's likely that a terrorist group, sooner or later, will do some kind of drone attack on a western target.

fallingfrog 7y ago

So, Saudi Arabia kills some 80,000 civilians in Yemen, and nobody cares, then when the rebels hit a Saudi oil field, killing nobody, and just destroying a bunch of capital, and all of a sudden its terrorism and we’re going to talk about intervening on the Saudis behalf? Glad to see we’re still very clear on what is important (the property of the ruling class, oil sheiks) and what isn’t (the lives of civilians and children).