Page 21 - RD_DubaiAirshow2019

Special issue Dubai Airshow 2019 / 19

September attack was not the first

Houthi success: for example, in May

they attacked a large oil pipeline

in the very heart of Saudi Arabia, and in

August they hit a military camp near

Aden with a ballistic missile at the moment

a parade was taking place there.

very heart of Saudi Arabia, and in August „Patriot“ PAC-3 AD
they hit a military camp near Aden with a system missile launch
ballistic missile at the moment a parade was (photo: Lockheed
taking place there. Thus, Abqaiq and Khurais Martin/flickr.com)
cannot be called the single failure of Saudi air
defences — we are talking about a systemic
issue, that requires decisive action from Riyadh.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS

In recent years, experts are increasingly talking
about the threat from small kamikaze drones
— these are the ones the Houthis use. Such
devices are simple and cheap, which means
that they can be utilised on a massive scale,
even by countries, which are far from militarily
advanced. Same goes for the groups they
support: it’s no secret that the Houthis receive
military assistance from Iran, just as the Syrian
militants received it from Saudi Arabia, Turkey
and several other countries.

At the same time, such drones prove to be
difficult targets. First of all, that is due to their
size, as well as the fact that they, as a rule,
fly at extremely low altitudes, which requires
particularly sensitive radars. In addition, they
can be used in quantities capable of simply
„overloading“ the air defence of the attacked
site. And, of course, the cost of an anti-aircraft
missile is much higher than that of a UAV with
a couple of tens of kilograms of explosives.