Yemeni Ballistic Missiles Capable of Evading Patriot Anti-Ballistic Interceptors

The missiles possessed by the Yemeni army and Ansarullah have high-precision capabilities so that the third generation of Patriot missile defense systems cannot track them, the Arabic-language al-Massira news channel reported.

The US equipped Saudi Arabia with advanced Patriot anti-ballistic missile interceptors in 2016.

Defense analysts believe that overcoming and evading Patriot anti-ballistic missile system is a major achievement for the Yemeni army and popular forces.

US Arab allies have sought to bolster their ballistic missile capabilities and anti-ballistic missile defense after the Iran nuclear agreement with the world powers.

In May 2015, the United States and Persian Gulf Arab countries agreed to expand defense cooperation. Saudi Arabia was the world’s largest importer of arms in 2014, primarily purchasing weapons from the United States.

In a relevant development on Sunday, Yemeni forces hit a military base inside Saudi Arabia close to the common border in a counter-strike carried out amid no letup in Saudi carnage of Yemen’s civilians.

The rocket attack targeted the outpost situated in the ‘Asir region in the kingdom’s extreme Southwest with an unknown number of projectiles on Sunday.

The Yemeni war media published extended footage of the counter-raid after Saudi officials denied that such retaliatory attack had ever taken place.

Yemeni soldiers and allied popular fighters have been hitting targets in the kingdom’s border area in response to its March 2015-present invasion of the impoverished country.

The offensives, which has killed more than 13,100 civilians, are underway to restore power to Yemen’s former Saudi-backed government. Head of the administration Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a sworn Riyadh ally, fled right before the invasion to Riyadh, leaving the country in political shambles despite calls on him to stay in office.

One of the bombings, which received rare international coverage, hit a funeral home near the Yemeni capital Sana’a, leaving at least nine people dead, including a child.

The invasion has also pulverized Yemen’s already-flimsy infrastructure. Earlier in the year, the UN made an urgent appeal to stave off famine in the country where over seven million people are facing the plight of starvation.