Yemen Civil War News and Discussion.. an evolving situation

[ChineseTiger1986]

Why does everything always have to boil down to a ground invasion?

In this day and age, we have armed drones, loitering munitions, precision-strike capabilities, satellites, cyberwarfare and long-range missiles. There are plenty of ways to weaken or pressure an enemy without sending hundreds of thousands of troops across a border.

Do you think China is “capable” of invading Taiwan, or are there other reasons why it doesn't necessarily have to?

Apparently, though, the logic works like this:

• China won't invade Taiwan = China is strong.
• Iran won't invade Kuwait = Iran is strong.
• The US won't invade Iran, Ukraine or Yemen = The US is weak.

The US tried to bomb Iran into stone age, but it couldn't work without the ground invasion.

 

[Hussain]

Not a sectarian bone in me , I am an atheist.

All men have a bone, but it sleeps most of the time, only waking up when some sort of external stimulus reminds it, that it has a job to do

 

[Falgrine]

All men have a bone, but it sleeps most of the time, only waking up when some sort of external stimulus reminds it, that it has a job to do

Quite true especially given most of us (if not all) have been brought up with a certain religious/political worldview

 

[retaxis]

Saudi number 7 on largest defence budget in the world but in reality that money is just to give to americans and get taken for a full ride. Americans get to sell a nut and bolt for $1000 each to Saudis so no wonder they can't fight. They spend more than France and France is a UNSC member and major world power lol.

Top Countries by Defense Budget (2025/2026 Estimates)

• • 1. United States: $921.0 billion
  • 2. China: $251.3 billion
  • 3. Russia: $186.2 billion
  • 4. Germany: $107.3 billion
  • 5. United Kingdom: $94.2 billion
  • 6. India: $78.3 billion
  • 7. Saudi Arabia: $72.5 billion
  • 8. France: $70.0 billion
  • 9. Japan: $58.9 billion
  • 10. Ukraine: $44.4 billion [1, 2]

 

[clutch]

Great video with stats and Videos from Houthis military actions.... Watch the entire video.

 

[Persian Gulf]

major Yemeni missile strikes against multiple targets across Saudi Arabia

 

[kobra]

major Yemeni missile strikes against multiple targets across Saudi Arabia

Looks like a massive attack.. Sat images will tell the story tomorrow.

 

[kobra]

Damn..... 20 missiles, Patriot failed again..

 

[Persian Gulf]

 

[Watandar]

Old video I think I seen it some weeks back. The sound overlayed is also artificial.

 

[kobra]

 

[SD 10]

Is iran fighting Israel? They are not

Well they did though..... Much better than the other side!!!!

 

[Shags202]

Well they did though..... Much better than the other side!!!!

Seriously it’s like they think Iran can fight everyone tired with one hand behind their back and I keep saying this but man if you people think Iran is finished with Israel or Bibi for that matter and not just brewing something very special one day for them be it in Israel or outside of Israel Israel did the opposite in the beginning of the war they took out all the moderates and kept all the hardliners in play who aren’t budging and pushing aside weak politicians to do whatever they want

 

[Watandar]

Looks like a massive attack.. Sat images will tell the story tomorrow.

Looks like it was a nothingburger.

 

[FuturePAF]

Like I was saying, it is continuation of civil war. Opposition to Houthi's make push from east, Houthi's push South >> ceasefire and diplomatic solution reached eventually. This has replayed itself many times before in the war.

Saudis weakness is target acquisition and intelligence capabilities. So they likely cannot intervene on scale they'd like even if they wanted to. And cooler heads should prevail.

Allegedly, accordingly to the following analyst with 40+ years experience in the region, the Saudi backed Yemeni government troops numbered tens of thousands on paper, but in reality were only 3000. Even then, those forces didn’t really want to fight.

The South Yemenis were well equipped, but poorly trained, motivated, and led.

IMHO, other than a general mobilization by the Saudis of 100,000 Saudi men (from across all of Saudi tribal society) or an equally sized well trained army of foreigners, the only other option for the Saudis will be to rebuild their pipeline, get awacs to fly over their pipeline and bring in a lot of air defenses. (BTW, if the Saudis really did mobilize a 100,000 man army as the analyst in the video suggests, taking the Red Sea coast back and holding the terrain would be most of the objective; surrounding and cutoff the Houthi allied population, but not going into those mountains and being decimated like the Egyptians were decades ago.)

This might be an existential moment for the Saudi economy.

In the meantime, the Houthis will be planning to race to take Aden, while there is confusion. Saudis could rally their Yemeni allies to reinforce and built up the defenses around Aden, to stop the momentum of the Houthi offensive. As for ISR, Saudis could put up enough drones to watch for advancing troops, the real issue is command and control. Who would be leading any defense of Aden?

Frankly, no one is willing to fight for the Saudis under the current arrangements Saudi has for its allies or its own citizens. The blowback from Iran is one reason, but so is the general lack of a political strategy.



P.S. some sources say the Houthis may have up to 300,000 troops. Classic military strategy says an attacker should number 3:1 for a full war. Considering Houthi controlled territory is 85% of the 40 million population of Yemen; 34 million, so with COIN 1:20 ratio, would mean between these two scenarios, a force of 900,000-1,700,000 to have a chance at completely taking out the Houthis.

Instead of Saudi’s NEOM line, the Saudis may need to retake the entire Red Sea coast and build a Ukrainian style “defense line” to hold it. But this would mean a full scale war.

In the mean time, IMHO, there is going to be a major naval and amphibious assault battle in the making. Saudi has a major helicopter lift capability. They could land a lot of troops, but they will face a lot of Houthi anti ship and air defenses, as well as mines.

You can also assume Saudi diplomats are going to reaching out to the Yemenis tribes allied to the Houthis to be peeled away.