Illustrative image
On February 8, an unnamed Yemeni officer told the Yemeni al-Masirah TV that the Yemeni Air Defense Force and the Missile Forces [both allied with the Houthis] conducted a joint operation and destroyed a MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3 air defense system of the Saudi-led coalition in the coastal town of Mocha in the southwestern province of Taiz.
The Russian news outlet Sputnik news revealed that the Yemeni Air Defense Force attacked the Saudi Patriot PAC3 system with an unspecified “attack Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)” while the Yemeni Missile Forces targeted the system with an unspecified “ballistic missile”.
Experts believe that the Yemeni Air Defense used a suicide UAV to target the Radar of the Patriot PAC-3 system. A report released by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) group in March 2017 revealed that the Houthis had attempted to attack the radar of a UAE Patriot system deployed in Yemen with a suicide UAV named “Qasef-1”. This UAV is a copy of the Iranian-made “Ababil-2” UAV armed with 30kg warhead.
The Qasef-1 UAV, February 2017 (Photo: Conflict Armament Research)
From its side, the Saudi-led coalition announced that its air defense systems in the town of Mocha intercepted and destroyed the ballistic missile launched by the Houthis. However, the coalition didn’t present any evidence to support its claim.
Moreover, the UAE-based al-Arabiya TV reported that Saudi-led coalition warplanes had destroyed a position in al-Hudaydah province, over 40km north of Mocha, from which the Houthis launched their ballistic missile.
This was the first time when the Houthis claimed that they had destroyed an air defense system of the Saudi-led coalition since the outbreak of the Yemeni war in 2015.
Be America. Claim to have best air defence system in the world.
Watch it get blown up by old Soviet missiles :)
Not that hard though if your best air defense system is being controlled by monkeys.
I read a report in an Israeli paper over a year ago that Israelis were sent to help ‘train’ Saudis on better using their AA systems. I wonder if that was code for Israelis have now taken control over running Saudi’s anti aircraft systems. And if so, I wonder if an Israeli was hurt or killed in this retaliatory attack against Saudi assets.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some Israeli operators were hired to take control. That’s the only thing the Saudis seem able to do. Hire people to do their dirty work for them.
On the other hand, no one seems to like working for them though. I met a former RAF guy once who worked in Saudi Arabia. He described them as lazy sneaky bastards. Always feigning to be friends, always trying to get alcohol, and always willing to rat you out if you did give them alcohol. After he finished his tour there the company who had hired him tried to get him do another tour but he declined.
So in that sense I reckon Saudi Arabia’s mercs are probably not going the extra mile for their hated employers.
It is ironic given how many billions SA spends on sophisticated US weapons and fighter jets: they don’t seem to know how to use the gear.
It’s in their culture. They are spoiled princelings who never have to do a days work, as all the work gets done for them by foreigners. Whom they mistreat. That is why everyone who has to work with Saudis ends up hating them.
“anti racist” “civil rights activist” LOL …ROFL ;) 5 thousand comments all blocked because u do not want people to see your bias ..lol oh oh please get over your self ,YOUR HASBARA NO LONGER WORK ,do a favor to HUMANITY stop SANITIZING ISRAHELL APARTHEID ,RACISM and ethnic cleansing ,israhell and saudi arabia are partners since 1973 and have been TERRORIZING the world ever since which is a very long time. just in the last ten years in one way or another they are responsible of a 15 million people displaced and at least 3 million lives
It may be a bit like with Hamas rockets that the Israeli missile defense couldn’t catch: they are just too crude to be recognizable by the modern systems. The old Soviet missiles may have the same advantage of being not sophisticated enough to be caught by hi-tech missile defense.
Sputnik is bullshit
ahahahaha very nice!!!! take out their entire air defense network!!! THEN ANNIHILATE THEIR AIRBASES!!!
Well done.
Great day! Israhell F-16 shot down and now this news I enjoy. :D Well done Houtis.
What a joke. Patroit cannot even protect itself and want to protect other?
We what kind of system is that?
expensive junk/s I presumed..!
A suicide UAV…? Now there is an example of a oxymoron.
If it’s a machine, can it commit suicide? Do androids dream of mechanical sheep?
Fantastic.
This day keeps getting better, the Israelis, Turks and Saudis all getting bloodied in new ways. All three aggressors getting their dose of karma.
If this report is true, it is bad advertising for US missile defense.