The United Arab Emirates (UAE) are
reshaping their military posture abroad, reflecting their recalibrated foreign policy. This especially regards the Bab el-Mandeb area: as the Emiratis have partially withdrawn from the military bases in the Horn of Africa (Berbera in Somaliland and Assab in Eritrea), they are strengthening the pivot on Yemen’s coasts and islands: Perim, Mokha and Socotra. This reorganization mirrors the UAE’s tactical policy
shift from
power projection to
power protection: the Emirati armed forces seem to have temporarily moved from a power projection-oriented expeditionary force to a
reactive and monitoring force focused on power protection. With a special eye on securing maritime waterways for energy and trade.
Brief Analysis
Saudi Arabia used what Congress might consider “offensive weapons” to successfully defend major oil terminals, but a much more devastating attack is inevitable if Houthi missile and drone attacks persist.
On March 7, a drone struck the world’s largest oil loading facility at Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia, driving oil prices up to more than $70 per barrel for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic depressed the global economy. Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed the attack, specifying that they had launched ten long-range drones and one ballistic missile against eastern Saudi Arabia, plus four short-range drones and seven precision rockets against military targets in the southwest.
Suspected Iranian loitering SAM powered by Dutch minijet
03 February 2021
by Jeremy Binnie
The surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) found by the US Navy on two dhows smuggling weapons to Yemen are powered by small gas turbine engines made by the company AMT Netherlands, according to a recently released report by the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen.
One of the 358 SAMs that was recovered. (US Department of Justice)
The previously undocumented missiles were found along with other weapons and components – many of them Iranian-made – on two dhows that were stopped in the Gulf of Aden in November 2019 and February 2020. Named the 358 SAM by the US military, they are comparatively slow, but long-range weapons that appear to be designed to loiter until they detect an aircraft.