Iran using Houthis as weapons ‘testing ground’

Iran’s strategy of integrating the Houthis into the ‘axis of resistance’ proved successful after Hamas’s Oct. 7 mass murder attack, when the Houthis joined the campaign in the Red Sea.

By Yaakov Lappin, JNS

Israeli air defense officials are reviewing the performance of Air Force detection and interception capabilities on Sunday, hours after the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen fired a surface-to-surface missile that set off sirens across central Israel.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, at 6:21 on Sunday morning, the missile was launched from Yemen towards Israeli territory, and it likely fragmented mid-air, according to preliminary findings.

The attack triggered several interception attempts by Israel’s Arrow and Iron Dome defense systems, the IDF said. These attempts, and the effectiveness of the interceptions, are under review. Warning sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol.

IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Michael Segal, an expert on Iranian strategic issues who is today chief information officer at the Tel Aviv-based Acumen Risk intelligence and risk management consultancy, told JNS that in recent years, Yemen has served as Iran’s largest testing ground for various types of weapons.

“During the Saudi coalition’s operations in Yemen, following the Houthi takeover of parts of the country during the Arab Spring, the Houthis fired a wide range of missiles, drones, and rockets at strategic sites in Saudi Arabia, including oil facilities and airports. Yemen, where active fighting continues in various regions, offers Iran an opportunity to test a variety of weapons, from roadside bombs, sniper rifles and anti-tank weapons to ballistic missiles and drones,” Segal said.

“These weapons are transferred to the Houthis either as complete systems or in parts and are assembled in Yemen,” he continued.

Since early September, the Houthis have downed two American MQ-9 Reaper drones, likely using Iranian 358 surface-to-air missiles, which are also likely in the possession of Hezbollah in Lebanon and pro-Iran militias in Iraq.

Iran’s strategy of integrating the Houthis into the “axis of resistance” proved successful after Hamas’s Oct. 7 mass murder attack, when the Houthis joined the campaign in the Red Sea, disrupting Israeli shipping routes and severely damaging Egypt’s revenue from the Suez Canal, Segal noted.

In August, a Houthi drone expert, Hussein Mastour al-Shabeel, was killed in a U.S. strike on the Kata’ib Hezbollah Shi’ite militia in Iraq, a reminder that Iran is transferring information via its proxies from one arena to the other, through trainers, he added.

This knowledge transfer includes long-range missiles, Segal said, including the past use of Hezbollah trainers in Yemen.

Underpinning this strategy is a fanatical Iranian religious ideology, expressed recently by the commander of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, who stated during a ceremony of the Iranian military, “We have come to prepare the Earth for the reappearance of Imam Mahdi,” according to the Iran Dossier website.

This messianic Shi’ite Islamist vision has been defined by Iranian officials as the goal of the Islamic Revolution, and used to justify aggression and proxy-building throughout the Middle East.

‘Fight to the last Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Iraqi‘

“I would argue that Iran’s long-term strategy, similar to its approach in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza and Judea and Samaria, has successfully encircled Israel and kept it occupied on multiple fronts, all without Iran itself paying any direct price. Iran’s rationale is to push conflicts away from its borders and avoid involvement unless necessary—thus far, Iran has not responded to the assassination of Haniyeh on its soil,” said Segal.

“In essence, Iran is willing to fight to the last Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni and Iraqi. If Israel and the West seek long-term stability in the region, they must remove Iran from the equation, primarily by posing a direct threat to Iran and its leader, [Ali] Khamenei, personally,” he added.

Sunday’s missile attack led to debris from the interceptors falling in open areas, with fragments landing at the Paatei Modi’in Railway Station, west of Jerusalem. Additionally, a fire broke out near Moshav Kfar Daniel, with Israel Fire and Rescue Service crews arriving to contain and extinguish the flames.

The Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility for the attack. According to Israel’s Army Radio, Saree said the missile was a hypersonic ballistic projectile capable of reaching a range of 2,040 kilometers (1,268 miles) in 11.5 minutes.

He described the strike as part of the fifth escalation phase in the Houthi campaign against Israel.

A hypersonic missile is usually defined as a weapon capable of traveling at least Mach 5 or faster (five times the speed of sound)—a speed that can be matched by existing ballistic missiles.

The difference is in the ability of hypersonic missiles to maneuver within the atmosphere after they re-enter it from space, according to the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

No indication they reached the testing stage

Uzi Rubi, founder and first director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization in the Defense Ministry, who played a key role in the development of the first Arrow missile defense program, expressed skepticism about claims that Sunday’s missile was hypersonic.

He noted that while Iran has announced its intentions to develop such weapons, there is no indication that they have reached the testing stage.

Rubin, a senior research associate at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, assessed that the missile’s flight time matched that of a conventional ballistic missile.

“There is no doubt that the Iranians provided the Houthis with a version that is a little longer in range than the Qader missiles, which the Houthis have been using to attack Eilat until now,” he said.

In an analysis published at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in June, Rubin noted that the Ghader missile is a “more advanced version of the famous Iranian missile, Shahab 3,” which itself is a North Korean design that is manufactured under license in Iran.

He noted that Iranians have delivered Ghader missiles to “their Houthi allies in Yemen,” who used them to target Eilat six to seven times between October 2023 and June 2024.

The Ghader’s accuracy is not very high, he said, and it is more suited for targeting population centers than precise facilities.

The Houthis have fired more than 200 projectiles at Israel since Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, according to IDF assessments.

The Iranian-backed terrorists in Yemen also declared a maritime siege on Israel and parts of the Middle East, and attacked dozens of vessels from around the world, sinking some and disrupting the global economy.

The IDF is investigating its air defense performance. It declined to comment further on the incident.

Army Radio reported that since the start of the war, the Arrow system has intercepted numerous ballistic missiles, with a near-perfect success rate. This includes previous Houthi-launched ballistic missiles and the Iranian missile barrage on April 14.

On July 19, the Israeli Air Force targeted the Houthi-controlled fuel port of Hudeidah in “Operation Long Arm,” which involved fighter jets flying the same distance needed to hit Iran and striking port infrastructure used for terror activity, after which the Houthis vowed retaliation.

The IAF attack came a day after the Houthis fired an Iranian-made Samad 3 suicide unmanned aerial vehicle at Tel Aviv, killing a civilian and injuring several others.

In April, a cruise missile fired from Yemen exploded north of Eilat,

This latest incident underscores the complex challenges Israel faces as it continues to defend itself against a multi-front war, addressing threats from both regional actors and distant adversaries like the Iran-backed Houthis.

With the investigation underway, Israeli officials are reassessing the effectiveness of their missile defense systems in the face of evolving missile threats.

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