Houthi militias in Yemen shoot down US MQ-9 Reaper drone.

On November 9, 2023, the Houthi militia published a video showing that they shot down a US MQ-9 drone. This information was confirmed by a senior US military official who wished to remain anonymous.

Follow Air Recognition on Google News at this link

Video footage of an MQ-9 being shot down by Yemeni Houthis (Picture source: Houti social media)

The Houthi said it was an MQ-9 Reaper drone that was in Yemeni airspace and was shot down by air defenses. No details were made by the official Houthi press release as to the nature of the anti-aircraft system, however, some sources state the air system used by the Houthi to shoot down the US drone is a Russian air defense system, the Kub (NATO code: SA-6). The SA-6 is a Russian-made low- and medium-altitude surface-to-air missile system. The SA-6 entered service with the Russian army in 1967. The system has a range of 4 to 23 km and is capable of hitting targets at a maximum altitude of 8 km.

A senior US military official, who wished to remain anonymous, to discuss details that have not yet been made public, indicates that the army is still analyzing the situation, in particular, to determine whether the drone where exactly the drone was located, in international airspace or over Yemen.

The General Atomics MQ-9 is a medium to high-altitude, long-duration UAV system. It made its first flight in 2001 and was put into service in 2007, in the world of unmanned aerial systems it is therefore almost a grandpa, in view of the frantic development of this type of equipment.

The Reaper is equipped with a single Honeywell TPE-331-10T turboprop engine which allows it to reach a maximum speed of 480 km/h. It can operate at a maximum altitude of 15,200 m and has a range of 1,850 km.

The drone can be equipped with different weapon systems, 4 or 8 AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles which have a range of 500 m to 8km, 2 AIM-92 Stinger air-to-air missiles which have a range of 4.8 km as well as cruising altitude of 3.8 km and finally, it can also be equipped with 2 BU-12 Paveway II bombs equipped with an Mk-82 charge of 87 kg.

The MQ-9 has had good economic success. Several countries are now operating with this system, notably Belgium (not yet delivered), Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, the United Kingdom, and even the Netherlands which has unarmed versions.

Since the start of hostilities between Hamas and Israel, the Houthis in Yemen have clearly sided with the Gazans. They even launched a series of attacks aimed at Israel, one having even been intercepted by the USS Carney, we tell you a little more about this episode on Navy Recognition dated October 20, 2023. It goes even less given that the Houthi forces present in Yemen have even gone so far as to declare war on the state of Israel officially.