Houthis shot down US MQ-9 drone in the Red Sea

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The Iranian-backed Houthis shot down a United States drone over the Red Sea on Monday.

Department of Defense deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters on Tuesday that initial indications are that the Yemen-based Houthis used a surface-to-air missile to hit the MQ-9 Reaper drone, an unmanned drone typically used for intelligence collection. She said she doesn’t “believe it has been recovered at this time.”

The incident is the latest in the tension between the U.S. and the Houthis, which dates back to November. The Iranian-backed group has launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels transiting the frequently used waterways off of Yemen’s coast, which they claim they’re doing in response to Israel’s war against Hamas and the U.S.’s support for Israel. Their attacks have forced commercial shipping companies to reroute ships on longer voyages, negatively affecting the global shipping industry.

The U.S. has also launched dozens of strikes against the Houthis’ capabilities, though U.S. forces have not been able to completely destroy their capabilities, as evidenced by the continuing attacks. As of Tuesday, the U.S. has carried out 32 strikes, with the most recent on Monday.

“I think you’re certainly seeing that they have sophisticated technology to build things that they’re getting from Iran. And yeah, of course, their attacks are getting more sophisticated,” Singh acknowledged.

A U.S. Coast Guard ship interdicted a ship from Iran to Yemen, intended for the Houthis, in late January that had more than 200 packages that contained weapons or weapons components, including medium-range ballistic missile components and unmanned underwater/surface vehicle (UUV/USV) components.

“We have been able to disrupt some delivery of capabilities to the Houthis. We’ve also continued to conduct coalition strikes and dynamic strikes in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. So we have been able to degrade the Houthis’ capabilities,” she acknowledged. “I can’t say that we’ve been able to stop every single shipment that has been able to get to them by most likely Iran, but we have been able to considerably degrade their capabilities.”

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The Houthis previously shot down an MQ-9 drone in November, also off the coast of Yemen.

In 2020, the Air Force reported new Reapers, which have a wingspan of 66 feet and are 36 feet long, cost about $32 million each, according to Forbes. The drones have a range of more than 1,100 miles and can reach an altitude of up to 50,000 feet.

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