On Thursday, the Russian RIA Novosti News Agency cited an anonymous government official who said that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have acquired a hypersonic missile. The state-owned media company provided no further documentation other than the sources’ knowledge.
The report comes as the Yemen-based Islamist movement has been waging a terror campaign against commercial shipping along its coastline. Spokespersons for the militants contend that these incursions are done with the intention of showing solidarity with the Hamas terrorist organization as they fight Israel in Gaza.
Hypersonic missiles are weapon-systems that can travel between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound. The group's main benefactor, the regime in Iran, has claimed to possess such technology, while Moscow has deployed them with devastating effect in their current war with Ukraine.
If the report is true, the presence of this advancement in the Houthi arsenal would be a significant force multiplier. The attack-drones and anti-ship missiles that have been deployed against civilian vessels in the past, usually either miss their targets or are defeated by the Western countermeasures used by the allied naval coalition that has been providing regional maritime security.
Since the beginning of March, Houthi leadership has been claiming that they have “surprises” for those countries involved in attempting to prevent their actions.
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