Yemen: A French-language weekly magazine that covers the aerospace sector discussed the armament system of the Yemeni army and its stages of development in light of the coalition war on Yemen.

In a report, the French magazine Air & Cosmos said that "several years ago, Sana'a forces were able to confront the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. Despite the difference in military capabilities, Sana'a still has an offensive capacity and huge air defense systems."

It stated that while the Yemenis are arming themselves, it seems that Saudi Arabia's war against Yemen is dragging it into a long, risky and very costly conflict. Therefore, the means of Sana'a's air forces are an important component in this conflict, as it is its most important combat capability, as it allows it to strike depth at its main enemy, Saudi Arabia.

The magazine reported that Sana'a obtains these systems through local manufacturing, while it regularly announces the development of local technologies "missiles, drones, etc."

It continued that "at the beginning of the war, many units of the Yemeni army joined the camp of the Sana'a forces, and then after that the Sana'a forces acquired many old Soviet systems, especially the SA-2, SA-3, SA-6 and SA missiles. - 9".

The magazine stated that the coalition had destroyed some of these systems and some Air defense systems, which prompted Sana'a to use a local system, called Fater-1, which would have destroyed two American MQ-9 Rober drones.

In order to face the lack of means and capabilities, it added, Sana’a forces had to improvise, then converted the Soviet R-10 air-to-air and R-11 missiles into surface-to-air missiles. Then Sana’a announced that it had shot down a Saudi plane F-16 in February 2017 and damaged another F-15.

As for cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, the magazine added, since the beginning of the war, the Yemeni Armed Forces launched an attack on Camp Safer on September 4, 2015 and they launched an attack on January 18, 2020 in Marib Governorate. The Yemeni forces used surface to surface missiles to strike the depth of the Saudi-led coalition.

The report indicated that at the beginning of the war, Sana'a obtained some weapons from military stores, then it seized TR-21 Tochka missiles, in addition to many Soviet Scud family missiles: Scud B, which is a copy of North Korean missiles from Hwasung 5 and Hwasung 6.

This family of systems also witnessed a local development, which appears to be the Burkan-1 and Burkan-2 missiles. Yemeni experts also converted the V-750 missiles from the SA-2 anti-aircraft system into surface-to-surface missiles called Qaher-1 and Qaher-2, which are accurate missiles.

The report stated that 2018 marked a turning point in the war for the Sana'a forces, saying, "Drones have gradually become one of their favorite weapons alongside ballistic missiles, as evidenced by the stunning attack on Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports in 2018."

It revealed that in order to direct strikes and collect information on the battlefield, they can rely on several models of reconnaissance drones: Hudhud-1 has a range of 30 km, and flies for 90 minutes, A-Rageeb has a range of 15 km and flies in the air for 90 minutes, and the Rased drone, which has a range of 35 km and flies for 25 minutes, the latter appears to be a model very similar to the Chinese Skywalker 8x.

The magazine continued by saying, as for the attack, Sana'a has another system such as the Qasef-1, with a payload of 30 kg of explosives. 

According to the magazine, these drones and loitering munitions were used to strike the oil sites of the giant Aramco company in August 2019, indicating that the gradual withdrawal of the United States from the region as part of the shift towards the Indian and Pacific oceans threatens to reduce American assistance to the coalition such as intelligence and others.

The report indicated that if the Gulf states want to continue the war, they will have to invest more, when the conflict already appears as a financial abyss. In addition, sales of weapons and technology from European countries to members of the coalition could slow, after numerous accusations by NGOs about the use of the Western systems for war crimes during the aggression against Yemen.

The report pointed out that the scope and danger of the systems that Sana'a has is increasing, which poses an increasing threat to the Gulf monarchies. It produces or manufactures more and more missile systems and air defense systems, and the risks are still great for strategic goals like oil facilities, military sites, and other Saudi targets.