3 ms·

This idea of the Houthis as some sort of desert people misses that they took over the military of what was formerly an ally of "The West".. They have attack he

• dragonwriter 3y ago
  > They have American & Soviet fighter jets (F-5 / SU-22) They have, from the accounts I’ve seen (including their own propaganda videos) a single flyable F-5 constituting their entire “fast air combat capability” of those delivered to Yemen more than 40 years ago (and the F-5 was an older cheap export fighter then.) And... I wouldn't expect it to be flyable much longer. Mobile missile launchers may be hard to find and kill on the ground, boring conventional fixed-wing jet fighters aren't, and even though they aren't the strategic target of the coalition the US has put together, US combat doctrine very heavily favors early destruction of an enemy’s air combat capability and air defenses to maximize freedom of operation.
  • mikeyouse 3y ago
    True enough - but they've carried out multiple strikes with the SU-22s in their possession and can presumably restock / refit those with Iranian support -- they also have several dozen older MIGs. There's no doubt that they'd be annihilated if they tried to use those for continued offensive missions outside of the Yemeni borders but they could likely pull off a single fast attack on Cairo or Suez if they were so inspired.
    • dragonwriter 3y ago
      > but they could likely pull off a single fast attack on Cairo or Suez if they were so inspired. No. They couldn't. Yemen to either is like three times the range of the SU-22 on a shortest distance path, which would take them through Saudi Arabia and close enough for mistakes of intent to Israel, either of which—as well as Egypt—has Air Forces more than capable of intercepting and destroying them if they magically gained the range to try to pull of that kind of flight. The Houthi Air Force is useful for their civil war, and not a whole lot else.
    • greedo 3y ago
      I would view claims of "several dozen older MIGS" with great suspicion. There's a report of a single MIG-29, but no word of its flying condition. In the civil war, Yemen had to rely upon mercenary pilots to fly them, as well as maintain them.
• greedo 3y ago
  They've been targeting land-based military (and industrial) targets in other countries. They've been fighting Saudi Arabia for maybe a decade, using a variety of drones/cruise missiles. Their air force is a joke though. A single flying F-5 (vintage 1970), and some decrepit SU-22 Fitters with no range. Also, those aren't "attack" helicopters. They're bog standard Mi-8 transport helicopters. You can use them to attack, but they're nothing like a Hind/Hokum/Havoc or Apache helicopter.