Houthi Ansar Allah Movement Reveals First Use Of New, Locally-Made USV With 'High Destruction Capability,' Against Merchant Ships In Red Sea

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. 

On June 27, 2024, during his weekly speech, Abd Al-Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis), revealed that the Houthis have recently introduced a new Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) into operational use. Known as "The Destructive Flood," he said that it is being used in Houthi operations that target ships "connected to the Israeli, American, and British enemy." Al-Houthi asserted in his speech that the new USV can carry a warhead weighing one-and-a-half tons and that it possesses "tremendous explosive power" which causes extensive damage to ships when it impacts them.[1]

On June 29, 2024, on his Telegram channel, Houthi armed forces spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yahya Sare'e announced that on the following day the Houthi armed forces would reveal a new USV "with high destruction capability and advanced technology,"[2] as well as a video depicting this USV impacting the ship the TRANSWORLD NAVIGATOR in the Red Sea, on June 23, 2024.[3]

The next day, the Houthi official Military Media Telegram Channel posted a short videoclip allegedly showing the moment of the USV's impact on the TRANSWORLD NAVIGATOR in the Red Sea, and claimed that the attack employed the new USV known as The Destructive Flood.

The clip included information about the operational capabilities of the USV when it is controlled manually and when it is controlled remotely.

The video also includes a warning to the crews of the ships that belong to companies that the Houthis describe as having violated the ban on entry to ports of "occupied Palestine," to abandon their ships, which may become targets of the Houthi naval forces. The clip also stresses that the Houthi maritime operations "will continue and even escalate, against all the criminal companies, until the Zionist aggression against Gaza stops." The technical information provided in the clip describes the missile as a locally-produced attack USV that can carry a warhead weighing between 2,200 and 3,300 pounds, can move at a speed of 45 nautical miles per hour, and is operational in all sailing weather.[4]

It is notable that the unveiling of the new SUV follows other recent disclosures about Houthi-produced advanced weapons systems, such as the Palestine ballistic missile[5] the Tawfan 1 USV and the Hatem-2 hypersonic long-range missile.[6]