Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have built a diverse missile and drone arsenal that allows them to sustain attacks against Saudi Arabia and strategic maritime targets, raising concerns about the duration and intensity of the renewed conflict.
Since early September, the group has struck key oil infrastructure and airports across Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh’s airport, which has been targeted 20 times, according to the supplied account. It has also attempted, unsuccessfully, to strike the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
The renewed hostilities followed a Saudi bombardment of Sanaa’s airport in July aimed at preventing a Houthi delegation from landing in the Yemeni capital, ending a four-year truce.
April Longley Alley, a Yemen specialist at the Washington Institute think tank, described the subsequent exchanges as a strategy of reciprocal escalation.
"The Houthis framed this campaign as blockade for blockade, airport for airport, escalation for escalation,” she said.
A varied weapons arsenal
The Houthis possess ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aerial and maritime drones, giving them multiple options for attacking infrastructure and threatening shipping near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a strategic passage linking the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea.
Their weapons come partly from military stockpiles seized when they captured Sanaa in 2014. Others have been smuggled into Yemen as complete systems or assembled locally from imported components, primarily brought in through the Arabian Sea, said Niranjan BS, a strategic weapons analyst at Jane’s.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance database, the group operates several medium-range ballistic missiles, including systems derived from Iranian designs such as the Kheibar Shekan.
Its shorter-range weapons include the Asef anti-ship missile, derived from Iran’s Khalij Fars missile family, according to the Wilson Center think tank.
The Houthis also possess cruise missiles from Iran’s Quds family. The Quds-4 variant is believed to have a range of about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), the Wilson Center said.
Their drone arsenal includes the Waeid-1 and Waeid-2, local copies of Iran’s Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 one-way attack drones, respectively, Niranjan said.
This combination allows the group to vary its attacks and threaten targets at different distances, complicating efforts to neutralize its capabilities.
Iran’s support, Houthi independence
Iran has provided critical military assistance to the Houthis, particularly through missile and drone technology, according to the Middle East Institute.
In a report, the institute said components manufactured in Iran are smuggled into Yemen by small boats, container ships or across the border with Oman before being assembled locally.
However, analysts caution against portraying the Houthis as a force that simply follows Tehran’s orders.
Danny Citrinowicz, an Israeli analyst specializing in Iran, said the Houthis viewed themselves as partners of Iran rather than proxies.
Iranian personnel linked to the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, maintain a presence in Yemen and advise the group, Citrinowicz said at a recent conference in Paris. But he said they do not decide Houthi military operations.
In June 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a man in China suspected of links to the Houthis, accusing him of playing "a key role in procuring materials that enable Houthi forces to manufacture advanced conventional weapons inside Yemen.”
A battle-hardened force
The Houthis have survived years of conflict and sustained air campaigns by Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel, leaving them experienced in operating under military pressure.
Longley Alley said their ability to withstand previous bombardments suggested that further strikes might not quickly end the confrontation.
"We need to remember with the Houthis that they have withstood punishing air campaigns before, from the Saudis, from the Americans, and from the Israelis,” she said.
"This is a battle-hardened group, and they have much less to lose than the Saudis.”
She added that the Houthis likely believed they could sustain the conflict longer because they were accustomed to absorbing attacks.