Houthi drone slips through Israel's defences, targets US embassy
Yemeni Houthi rebels attacked near the US embassy in Tel Aviv. Here's how they managed to slip through the world's best-protected city.
For many years, Israel has been bombarded by Hamas fighters from the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah operating from Lebanese territory. This has resulted in the creation of the world's most advanced anti-air and anti-missile defence system.
It's multi-layered and challenging to penetrate, but it is possible, as demonstrated by the Yemeni Houthi rebels, who claimed responsibility for the attack on the night of July 18-19, 2024. The attack using the new Yafa drone is meant to be a gesture of solidarity and support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Additionally, the Houthis have announced more attacks in their declaration.
It's also worth noting that the drone's target was most likely the nearby American embassy, but due to the imprecision of commercial navigation modules, the drone simply missed.
The Yafa drone — Houthi or Iranian stealth drone
It's worth noting that this is not the first Houthi attack on Israel, as these have been carried out with varying intensity since November 2023. However, the latest attack seems to be the first successful one, causing the death of at least one person and injuring nine others.
Like Hezbollah, the Houthis had much time to build their arsenal in relative peace. Yemen has been plunged into civil war since 2015, and only since 2022 has there been a fragile ceasefire until recently. The Houthis' peace in rearming with Iranian equipment was disrupted only by a series of attacks on civilian ships, which led to a series of retaliatory bombings by the US Navy and the Royal Air Force.
In the case of drones capable of flying a distance of about 2,000 kilometres, the Yemeni Houthis didn't have many. Previous attacks were carried out using Samad-3 drones, most likely with additional fuel tanks for the engine. These are constructions with a wingspan of 4.5 metres and a length of about 3 metres, capable of carrying up to 40 kilograms of payload. Photos of the drone debris from the attack in Tel Aviv show that it is a design with simple wings, ruling out the Ukraine-familiar Shahed-136.
Therefore, it’s possible that the new Yafa drone is an evolution of the Samad-3 drone in terms of adding stealth features or perhaps some variation of the "kamikaze" type of the new Iranian Shahed-149 drone, which is somewhat a clone of the MQ-9A Reaper.
Here's how the Houthi drone could have avoided being shot down
In the case of slow drones and cruise missiles, the best method to avoid detection by air defence radars is to fly at the lowest possible altitude, using natural terrain depressions such as river beds or valleys. For most drones with inertial or satellite navigation, it is possible to program a flight along a pre-designated path.
This happens because air defence systems' radar coverage is limited to the radar horizon, detecting low-flying objects up to 40 kilometres or less if the target has a reduced radar signature. This means that an air defence battery would need to be placed every 40 kilometres or less to create a tight air defence.
Even Israel lacks such capabilities, which creates gaps. The only effective way to detect such low-flying targets is to raise the radar to a high altitude. This can be done in two ways: using an AWACS-type aircraft (Israel has only four) or aerostats or large drones like the IAI Heron. However, such 24/7 surveillance is also very expensive and not always available.
