Iran is helping the Houthi rebels in Yemen target U.S. Reaper drones, which has enabled the Houthis to shoot down or damage several of the massive, unmanned aircraft, say two U.S. officials.
Tehran was already supporting the Houthis with money, training and equipment, but in recent months the Iranians have also helped the rebels stop the MQ-9 Reapers, which are used for both intelligence collection and airstrikes. Reapers can carry Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs.
The Houthis targeted and hit an MQ-9 last week, but the drone was able to land and the U.S. military recovered it, according to U.S. officials. The Houthis have shot down or hit about a half-dozen others since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 and claim to have downed another over the weekend.
The Pentagon did not respond directly to questions about Iran aiding the Houthis in shooting down drones, instead referring NBC News to a Defense Intelligence Agency report from February highlighting Iran’s support for the Houthis.
The White House National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent years, U.S. adversaries have been able to jam the communication link between the MQ-9 drone and its operators back on land. The U.S. communicates with the drones via satellite, so when that communication link between the aircraft and the satellite is jammed, operators can no longer control the drone. It can go off course and even crash, and can also become an easier target for hostile fire.
The Russians have been using this tactic against U.S. drones over Eastern Europe and Syria for some time. The interference severely inhibits the U.S. ability to gather intelligence and increases the chance that the drones could drift into unfriendly airspace. In many cases the drones have drifted off course for a bit but then returned safely to base.
Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy says the Houthis have improved their air defense systems with better weapons in recent months, many coming from Iran, upping their ability to hit U.S. targets with accurate fire.
“We know the Houthis have been developing stronger air defenses,” he told NBC News. He said the new and upgraded missiles and systems that the Houthis have obtained from Iran include the 358 and SA-2 surface-to-air missiles, both of which can take down a Reaper or other drone.
The U.S. military has struggled to stop some Houthi air defense systems because rather than radars, the Houthis often use electro-optical systems to find targets. They have no radar signature and are harder to detect.
“The Houthis and the Iranians went electro-optical, because it is a completely passive system. It’s hard to hunt those things down because they don’t really have any signature before launch,” Knights said.
The 358 missiles are “the weapon of choice to be handed out” to Iranian proxy groups like the Houthis, he said.
Knights also said the Houthis have effectively denied the U.S. Navy and many commercial ships the ability to operate in the Red Sea, given the high risk from Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles and surface-to-air missiles.
“They denied us the Red Sea as a place to do carrier ops,” Knights said.
Iran sent a spy ship to the waters near Yemen to help the Houthis target ships in the Red Sea. NBC News was first to report that the U.S. conducted a cyberattack against the ship to inhibit its ability to share intelligence with the rebel group.
It appears the U.S. plan to interdict shipments of Iranian weapons and destroy stockpiles of weapons and drones has failed to roll back Houthi attacks on cargo ships, Knights said.
“They’re resupplying faster than we can destroy them,” he said.
