The Houthi Thing

[MengJiao]

two weeks later while in a storm....

Abandoned for 12 days.  I wonder what kind of a munition hit it?  I've been running some Houthi attacks in
Command modern war and the most advanced Iranian antiship missiles have warheads of half a ton and a range of
almost 300 km.  I would guess the Houthis aren't using those or they would have sunk a lot more ships and
pretty spectacularly.

Ps I mean Command Modern Operations, a mindless name for a moderately amusing game

[GDS_Starfury]

well the Navy has been shooting shit down left and right, maybe this is just the one that hit finally.

[MengJiao]

well the Navy has been shooting shit down left and right, maybe this is just the one that hit finally.

Apparently, the US Navy has been hitting Houthi missiles when they switch on their launchers or their own systems start revving up for launch (radars?  Radio guidance?  Just rolling up to a firing position?).  The Houthis don't seem to have hit much lately and even the Italian navy is shooting down Houthi drones.

[MengJiao]

well the Navy has been shooting shit down left and right, maybe this is just the one that hit finally.

Apparently, the US Navy has been hitting Houthi missiles when they switch on their launchers or their own systems start revving up for launch (radars?  Radio guidance?  Just rolling up to a firing position?).  The Houthis don't seem to have hit much lately and even the Italian navy is shooting down Houthi drones.

And things go on being odd in Houthiland.  They claim US and British navy vessels messed up the cables.  Okay, so this claim seems oddly generic -- how would they know it was the US or British vessels that messed up the cables?  Rather than any of the other ships and other stuff shooting at things all over the Red Sea?

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Houthi Transport Ministry in Yemen said on Saturday there had been a "glitch" in undersea communication cables in the Red Sea as a result of actions by U.S. and British naval vessels.

The actions "endangered the security and safety of the international communications and the flow of information," the ministry said in a statement, reported by the Houthi-run Saba news agency, without giving details.

[Gusington]

'Houthi Transport Ministry'? Come on now.

[bobarossa]

Otherwise known as the Houthi Smuggling Ministry.

[W8taminute]

[MengJiao]

well the Navy has been shooting shit down left and right, maybe this is just the one that hit finally.

Apparently, the US Navy has been hitting Houthi missiles when they switch on their launchers or their own systems start revving up for launch (radars?  Radio guidance?  Just rolling up to a firing position?).  The Houthis don't seem to have hit much lately and even the Italian navy is shooting down Houthi drones.

And things go on being odd in Houthiland.  They claim US and British navy vessels messed up the cables.  Okay, so this claim seems oddly generic -- how would they know it was the US or British vessels that messed up the cables?  Rather than any of the other ships and other stuff shooting at things all over the Red Sea?

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Houthi Transport Ministry in Yemen said on Saturday there had been a "glitch" in undersea communication cables in the Red Sea as a result of actions by U.S. and British naval vessels.

The actions "endangered the security and safety of the international communications and the flow of information," the ministry said in a statement, reported by the Houthi-run Saba news agency, without giving details.

More puzzling stuff.  Two ships over the last few months have been hit and abandoned and have sunk and are sinking.  One of the missiles killed 3 crewmen on one of the ships which the news keeps reporting as "the first lethal attack" along with that "expensive drone" (one of three over the last five years that the Houthi have shot down).
Several things seem odd.  First of all about 200 Houthi seem to have been killed and the strikes are hitting ships in the Gulf of Aden now -- not the Red Sea.  So the Houthi are shooting from a relatively remote area far from the middle of Houthiland.
Second, while drones are "expensive" -- how expensive are 200 dead Houthi?  Apparently not "expensive" at all.
Anyway, as with most things -- I just don't get it at all.

[Uberhaus]

The Houthis apparently have UUVs, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68595451 

"This is deadly stuff," says Captain Dave Wroe, who commands the four US Navy destroyers which provide the extra protection for the carrier.

It arrived soon after Yemen's Houthi's began to target merchant vessels - they say in response to Israel's assault on Gaza.

Captain Wroe lists the threats they've been facing over the past four months: anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, and now unmanned underwater vessels, or UUVs, all loaded with explosives.
UUVs are the latest threat. He says the F-18 jets on board the carrier have recently destroyed UUVs, before they could be launched.

Captain Wroe says the Houthis have posed the greatest challenge to the US Navy in recent history.

"This is the most since World War Two," he says. That was the last time the US operated in an area where they could be fired upon every day.

[Gusington]

^Wow, that last sentence really resonates. Luckily the Houthis can fire but are still quite ineffective. Hoping they are slow learners.

[Uberhaus]

^Wow, that last sentence really resonates. Luckily the Houthis can fire but are still quite ineffective. Hoping they are slow learners.

They may have had a lot of help but they have competent engineers and unfortunately a lot of technical know how.   Going back a few years https://gwynnedyer.com/2018/yemeni-missiles-ssdd/

Jane's Information Group Ltd, established in 1898, is the world's leading independent provider of intelligence and analysis on defense matters. Here is what Jeremy Binnie, Middle East/Africa Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, said about Yemen's rockets in 2017 in Jane's Intelligence Review.

"The Burkan-2 appears to use a new type of warhead section that is locally fabricated. Both Iran and North Korea have displayed Scud derivatives with shuttlecock-shaped warheads, but none of these match the Yemeni version. The range of the Burkan missiles also appears to have been extended by a reduction in the weight of their warheads."

I think Dr. Dyer has come around to accepting that presently Iran is supplying the Houthis, but he is arguing against that in this older article and questioning the US administrations motives in saying that they were.

[ArizonaTank]

UK destroyer shoots down a Houti missile targeted at a merchant ship.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hms-diamond-just-taught-our-enemies-an-important-lesson/ar-AA1nId4z?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=ac7e55233e834ddc907ce5106efdee2a&ei=19