The laser-guided ‘smart’ bombs the RAF used to bomb Houthis ...Middle East

The UK has launched airstrikes on the Houthi rebels in Yemen overnight, the first under Keir Starmer’s leadership.

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 air force fired Paveway IV, a laser-guided “smart” bomb described as the “RAF pilot’s precision weapon of choice”, to hit their targets south of the capital.

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.

In response, the UK has carried out airstrikes on Yemen in partnership with the US.

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.

The strikes attacks were carried out “with minimal risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure” and at night when civilians were less likely to be in the area, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said, but any resultant death toll has not been confirmed.

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.

The Typhoon FGR4 jets are believed to have been scrambled from the UK’s military base, Akrotiri, in Cyprus, a key British foothold in the region.

The 21,000kg jets can travel at 1.8 times the speed of sound, and reach a maximum altitude of 55,000ft.

They were sent to a target around 15 miles (24km) south of Yemen’s capital of Saana, which had been identified as a drone production facility.

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.

“Although the latest strike package appears to have been accompanied by a Voyager tanker aircraft, it is a relatively long run in to Yemen from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, and the Typhoon’s twin-engine configuration offers another degree of comfort for the aircrews,” he said.

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.

“You would expect to have all of the various elements required for kinetic operations at short notice, in terms of weapons, technicians and mission planning and authorities and all the stuff that you would need.”

There, the jets dropped Paveway IVs, a type of laser-guided bomb.

New versions of the weapon, which is produced by defence company Raytheon, are equipped with GPS navigation systems to guide them to their target.

The bombs have been commonly used on operations in the region.

“Paveway IV is the RAF pilot’s precision weapon of choice for a wide range of targets, having been operationally dropped on vehicles, buildings and infrastructure targets in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, as well as Yemen,” Brown said.

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.”

Bronk said that Paveway IVs were “relatively affordable” at a few tens of thousands of pounds each, rather than hundreds of thousands for missiles such as Brimstone or even millions for Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

“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.

“It’s flexible, so you can hit moving targets with laser-guidance modes, you can hit targets in any weather that are fixed, or through cloud using GPS, assuming there’s not degradation from electronic warfare on GPS. Even then, it’s relatively resilient against GPS disruption. It’s the typical strike weapon for Typhoons.”

On completion, the jets and personnel returned safely to their base.

Strikes to ‘protect families in the UK’

Defence Secretary John Healey said that the strikes were launched to protect international shipping, disruptions to which can impact British families.

A wave of Houthi attacks on shipping have hit international ships, “killing innocent merchant mariners”, and disrupted global trade.

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“A 55 per cent drop in shipping through the Red Sea has already cost billions, fuelling regional instability and risking economic security for families in the UK,” he said.

The Houthis claim their actions are in response to Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza – an assertion dismissed by the UK and allies.

Houthi authorities said this week’s attacks were in “support Israel’s war and genocide in Gaza” and that “no matter the challenges” it would resist the “trio of evil” – the US, UK and Israel.

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”.

But the UK’s participation in the US-led strikes might also be a signal to the White House that it is serious about military co-operation.

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”.

“The UK has an interest in pressuring the Houthis to stop the attacks on shipping in the Red Sea,” he said.

“[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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