On July 7, Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthis) held a military exhibition displaying their new weapon systems, including the Quds-1 cruise missile, the Badr-F precision-guided tactical ballistic missile, and Samad-1, Samad-3 and Qasef-2K unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The Quds-1 cruise missile was the staple of the show. Previously, it was believed that the missile was derivative from the Iranian Soumar cruise missile, developed from the Soviet Kh-55 cruise missile. However, the new photos reveal that the Quds-1 has different design, like the top-mounted turbojet engine and the static wings. The missile’s engine appears to be identical to the TJ-100 produced by Czech’s PBS Velká Bíteš.
The Houthis have not revealed the Quds-1 characteristics. However, it is believed that it has a range of more than 150km. The missile likely relays on an inertial navigation system aided by a satellite navigation system such as GPS.
Some sources speculated that the missile could be equipped with some sort of terrain contour matching system. This would allow the missile to fly on low altitude and remain undetected by the enemy’s radars.
The Quds-1 cruise missile was used against Abha International Airport on June 12 and the al-Shuqaiq Water Desalination and Power Plant on June 19.
The exhibition also provided a closer look at the Badr-F precision-guided tactical ballistic missile, which was for the first time on April 16. Photos of the missile show that it has a bigger diameter than its predecessors, the Badr-1 and the guided Badr-1P. The missile size is closer to that of the Soviet OTR-21 Tochka. However, its design lines are different.
Earlier, the Houthis said that the Badr-F has a range of up to 160km and armed with a heavy warhead equipped with a proximity fuze. The missile explodes 20 meters above the center of the designated target and scatters some 14,000 pieces of shrapnel in a circular area with a radius of 350 meters.
Missiles of the Badr-F type have been used in several successful attacks on the Saudi-led coalition and its proxies since April. The most recent attack targeted a military camp of Saudi-backed forces in the Yemeni province of Ma’rib.
The design of the Samad-1 reconnaissance UAV is identical to that of Hezbollah’s Mirsad UAV. The Lebanese group displayed a UAV of this type in the Museum for Resistance Tourism in southern Lebanon last year. The Samad-1 appears to be equipped with an electro-optical reconnaissance system along with two data links, likely for control and live broadcast.
The Samad-3 design follows the same lines as the first generation. However, the UAV is equipped with what appears to be a conformal fuel tank. The Samad-3 is a suicide UAV designed to strike targets located behind the enemy lines.
On July 26, 2018, the Houthis targeted Abu Dhabi International Airport in the UAE with a Samad-3 UAV. The airport is located more than 1,500km away from the Houthi-held areas in western Yemen.
The Qasef-2K UAV, introduced for the first time last January, was among the revealed weapons. The Qasef-2K design is identical to that of the Qasef-1, which is a copy of the Iranian Ababil-2, according to a report of the Conflict Armament Research group.
Additionally, the Houthis showcased older weapons like the Scud-based Burkan-1 and Burkan-2H tactical ballistic missiles, Badr-1 and Badr-1P artillery rockets, and the Qahir-2M missile developed from the Soviet S-75 air defense missile.
The Houthis’ missile and UAV capabilities have grown significantly since the start of the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen. These capabilities allow the resistance movement to carry out successful attacks on infrastructure and military targets belonging to the Saudi-led coalition.
Well done. Other nations also learn from Chinese and Houthies.
Trump says don’t manufacture weapons because we are here to serve you. LOL
China is officially on Saudi Coalition side, they are selling to KSA the drones that killed Houthis ranks recently
The Trump journey from Mr. Trump to Mr. Tariff.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/09/dogs-of-war-howl-for-blood-in-iran-while-americans-cheer-us-bombers-on-july-4/
Dogs of War Howl for Blood in Iran While Americans Cheer US Bombers on July 4
by MEDEA BENJAMIN – ANN WRIGHT FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
President Trump’s order to the Pentagon to have an aerial parade of military aircraft over Washington, DC on July 4 provided a history lesson of America’s war mongering in the past two decades, and a terrifying view of what might appear in the skies of Iran if John Bolton gets his way.
The combat aircraft that were cheered by Trump’s supporters as they flew low over the monuments in the nation’s capital have not been cheered by people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Palestine as the same type of planes fly over their homes–terrifying and killing their children and wreaking havoc on their lives.
Over those countries, Air Force B-2 Spirit, Air Force F-22 Raptor, Navy F-35C Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18 Hornet stealth fighters and bombers fly so high they are not seen or heard—until the massive explosions from their 500- to 2,000-pound bombs hit and obliterate everything and everyone in their radius. The blast radius of a 2,000-pound bomb is 82 feet, but the lethal fragmentation reaches 1,200 feet. In 2017, the Trump administration dropped the most massive non-nuclear bomb in its inventory, the 21,000 pound “mother of all bombs, ” on a cave tunnel complex in Afghanistan.
While most Americans have probably forgotten we are still at war in Afghanistan, the Trump administration “eased” the rules of engagement, allowing the military to drop more bombs in 2018 than in any other year since the war began in 2001. The 7,632 bombs dropped by American aircraft in 2018 made U.S. weapons makers rich, but hit 1,015 Afghan civilians.
The Boeing-made combat attack Apache helicopters, a crowd pleaser on July 4, have been used by the US Army to blow up homes and cars filled with civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Israeli military uses them to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the Saudi military has killed children in Yemen with these death machines.
Billions of dollars worth of US planes and bombs sold to Saudi Arabia raked in record profits for weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. But they pummeled Yemeni civilians since the air war started in 2015, killing people in marketplaces, weddings, funerals, and 40 children on a summer outing in a school bus. Radhya al-Mutawakel, chairwoman of the Yemeni human rights organization Mwatana, says the US has legal and moral responsibility for selling weapons to the Saudi-led coalition. “Yemeni civilians are dying every day because of this war and you (America) are fueling this war. It is a shame that financial interests are worth more than the blood of innocent people.”
One notorious vehicle of death that was not flown above Washington was America’s assassin drone. Perhaps it was too dangerous for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to be flown close to the President of the United States and a crowd of American citizens with its history of numerous inexplicable crashes and intelligence failures that have caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Iraq.
John Bolton, who has the ear of the president every day, wrote in an op-ed in 2015 saying that in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, the U.S. should bomb Iran. Now that he has goaded Iran into stepping up its enrichment of uranium as a result of the U.S. reneging on the nuclear deal and European signatories bailing out on their responsibilities in the agreement, Bolton is itching to start the bombing. So are Bibi Netanyahu and Mohammad Bin Salman. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia have been trying for years to drag the US into a war with Iran. Colleagues in the humanitarian and refugee arenas in the Middle East tell us a war is coming and are preparing for its nightmarish consequences throughout the region.
With the U.S. political and media dogs of war howling again for blood in Iran, Trump’s decision to showcase America’s aerial firepower must have been cheered by the war hawks in the administration and Congress, and their friends in the weapons industry. But to those of us who want peaceful resolutions to international disputes, the Fourth of July display was a chilling reminder of the horrific deaths caused by successive Administrations’ propensity for war and the terror that might soon be raining down on the people of Iran if John Bolton gets his way.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/09/dogs-of-war-howl-for-blood-in-iran-while-americans-cheer-us-bombers-on-july-4/
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More articles by:MEDEA BENJAMIN – ANN WRIGHT
Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and the author of numerous books including “Inside Iran,” “Kingdom of the Unjust: Saudia Arabia” and “Killing by Remote Control-Drones.”
Ann Wright is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to Bush’s war on Iraq. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”
Great video, the Syrian war has been superseded by the much more important ME strategies Houthis are the vanguard Turkey and Qatar are close to being on board actively fighting KSA and UAE in the Arab Peninsula.
One thing holding them back is SAA seeking to exile Turkish Militias from Idlib, we have to convince these guys that the enemy of Islam is Saudi Arabia, many already are convinced but old long standing loyalties and family connections are impediments, SAA should be attacking YPG thereby convincing the anyone thinking of becoming a close US alli namely Sisi is making a mistake.
Hi Rodney! Hope your winter is going ok!
Are you implying that turkey is or will support the yemeni army?
This makes some sense as Erdogan has criticised the Saudis, saying they are not worthy as keepers.of the holy places or something along those lines.
An interesting post, thanks!
Winter is good, I’m having the time of my life, hope you are too, Islam in the ME is consolidating and looking for a stable middle ground to absorb the pent-up radicalism that was answered by attacking the closest vulnerable enemy, which explains why Russia wasn’t attacked post September 2015 in spite of the funds offered to do just that, recruitment for that agenda was met with ridicul because Russia wasn’t vulnerable.
But there is a lot of sworn loyalty to bad ideas, a good recent ME poll about Religious attitudes by James Zogby who’s been doing this polling for 6 years is presented by “The Real News” as a decline in Religious thinking but is only the opening gambit to get audience, “Reflections on the Middle East in 2018” is best watched on Middle East Institute, the poll is accurate, there is a polarisation, with what, could be a move away from bi-pola to rationalism.
This is the situation that Brother Erdogan is best able to exploit, this is the environment Brother Erdogan grew up in.