The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has detailed the role played by Royal Air Force (RAF) Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4s during strikes made against Houthi rebels in Yemen overnight on 11-12 January.
Launched from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, four Typhoons were supported on their mission by an Airbus Defence & Space A330 Voyager tanker.
The MoD says the aircraft deployed Raytheon UK Paveway IV precision-guided bombs against two Houthi facilities, including “a site at Bani in northwestern Yemen used to launch reconnaissance and attack drones”.
“A number of buildings involved in drone operations were targeted by our aircraft,” it confirms.
The other strike was on an airfield at Abbs, north-west of the Yemeni capital Sana’a, where the MoD says “several key targets were identified and prosecuted”.
“Intelligence has shown that it has been used to launch both cruise missiles and drones over the Red Sea,” the MoD says of the airfield.
“The detailed results of the strikes are being assessed, but early indications are that the Houthis’ ability to threaten merchant shipping has taken a blow,” the MoD says.
US Navy (USN) aircraft were also involved in additional strikes, which the US Central Command says included targeting air defence and radar systems, plus “storage and launch sites for one-way attack unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles”.
The allied action was launched following a recent spate of attacks mounted by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels against commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea. This included a major attack launched on 9 January during which USN and UK Royal Navy assets shot down multiple aerial threats.
Writing on social media platform X on 12 January, RAF chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton summarised the service’s participation as having been “Proportionate, professional, precise”.
In addition to the 226kg (500lb)-class Paveway IV, other weapon options available to the RAF’s Typhoon force are the lighter MBDA Brimstone air-to-surface weapon and the Storm Shadow cruise missile.
