The Royal Air Force used Typhoon fighter jets to hit a “cluster of buildings” that the Houthis had allegedly been using to manufacture attack drones.
The Houthis – an Iran-backed militant group that controls large swathes of Yemen – have launched a wave of drone attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023.
This week’s attacks are Britain’s first against the Houthis under the new Labour Government and the first since Donald Trump re-entered the White House.
Last week, the Houthis claimed that 68 migrants from parts of Africa had been killed in a US airstrike on a detention centre in a Houthi-controlled part of Yemen.
Houthi fighters ride vehicles at a rally in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and the recent Houthi strikes on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on 4 February 2024 on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)The 21,000kg jets can travel at 1.8 times the speed of sound, and reach a maximum altitude of 55,000ft.
Nick Brown, director of equipment intelligence at Janes, said that the Typhoon was the UK’s primary strike fighter, and had a greater unrefuelled range than the F-35B jet.
An RAF Typhoon returns to berth at RAF Akrotiri following a strike mission on Yemen’s Houthi rebels in January 2024 (Photo: MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images)
But the choice is also likely to be due to convenience; there are an estimated six Typhoons stationed at RAF Akrotiri in Cyrpus, according to Professor Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for airpower and technology at the Royal United Services Institute.
There, the jets dropped Paveway IVs, a type of laser-guided bomb.
The bombs have been commonly used on operations in the region.
A Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4 is prepared for take-off to carry out air strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus in 2024 (Photo: MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images)
“In addition to the GPS and laser targeting that are fairly common to modern ‘smart’ weapons, Paveway IV offers a high degree of terminal-phase flightpath shaping, which enables aircrew to not just hit a particular building or spot on a 2D map, but actually select which part of a floor of that building to attack, and which direct to come in from. It can also hit moving targets, including small boats.”
“As a 500-pounder that’s extremely accurate using either GPS-guided or laser-guidance modes, it’s got enough explosive power to take out most targets that you might want to engage.
On completion, the jets and personnel returned safely to their base.
Strikes to ‘protect families in the UK’
A wave of Houthi attacks on shipping have hit international ships, “killing innocent merchant mariners”, and disrupted global trade.
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The Houthis claim their actions are in response to Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza – an assertion dismissed by the UK and allies.
Bronk said the strikes were probably occurring now because the UK had obtained “time-sensitive, relatively up-to-date intelligence about specific targets” which the UK could hit with a “reasonable level of risk, at short notice, with a Typhoon”.
In leaked messages last month from a group chat of top US officials discussing airstrikes on the Houthis, Vice President JD Vance accused Europeans of being “freeloaders” and “pathetic”.
“[But also], given its a significant area of concentration and focus for the US administration at the moment and one of the criticism was consistently been – from [Defence Secretary Pete] Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and President Trump himself – that Europeans are not doing enough, having a UK contribution even a relatively limited one in a kinetic sense, is probably no bad from a relationship-with-Washington point of view.”
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