HOUTHIS DESTROYED UAE PATRIOT SYSTEM IN CENTRAL YEMEN WITH SWARM OF DRONES – REPORTS
On February 23, an unnamed Yemeni officer told the Yemeni
al-Masirah TV that the Yemeni Air Force and the Missile Forces [both allied with the Houthis] had conducted a joint operation and destroyed a MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3 air defense system and a headquarter of the UAE Army in the central Yemeni province of Ma’rib.
According to
al-Masirah, Yemeni forces attacked the UAE Army Patriot PAC-3 system with “a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs],” while the UAE Army headquarter was targeted with several ballistic missiles launched by the Yemeni Missile Forces.
The Saudi-led coalition immediately announced that its air defenses in Yemen had intercepted two ballistic missiles, which had been launched by the Houthis over the center of Ma’rib province. However, the collation didn’t report shooting down any UAVs of the Houthis.
Most likely, the Yemenis used a type of suicide UAVs named “Qasef-1” to conduct such attacks. The Qasef-1 is a copy of the Iranian-made “Ababil-2” UAV armed with 30kg warhead, according to a report of the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) group.
The Houthis
conducted a similar attack with UAVs and ballistic missiles against a Patriot PAC-3 system of the Saudi Army in the southwestern province of Taiz on February 8. However, the real results of these attacks are yet to be known.
