An ongoing campaign of US air strikes mounted against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen was for the second time supported by UK assets during action launched on 22 January.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirms that four Royal Air Force (RAF) Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4s released weapons against Houthi targets during the latest strikes. Deployed from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, these were supported by two of the service’s Airbus Defence & Space A330 Voyager multi-role tanker transports.
“Our aircraft used [Raytheon UK] Paveway IV precision-guided bombs to strike multiple targets at two military sites in the vicinity of Sanaa airfield,” the MoD says. “These locations were being used to enable continued attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea,” it adds.
Images released by the MoD show a Typhoon armed with a load of four 226kg (500lb) Paveway IVs, with the fighter’s weapons configuration also including MBDA ASRAAM and Meteor air-to-air missiles.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirms that coalition aircraft attacked eight targets during the latest action, describing these as “missile systems and launchers, air-defence systems, radars, and deeply buried weapons storage facilities”.
CENTCOM notes that the effort to degrade the Iran-backed Houthis’ military capability also has support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands.
Four RAF Typhoons had also taken part in an initial package of strikes on 11 January, which also involved the use of US Navy Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets launched from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower.
