In recent months, the Yemeni National Army and forces fighting alongside it have documented numerous incidents in which an armed UAV has been used in battlefields in various areas of the country by Houthi forces, particularly on the frontlines in Marib, Saada and Al-Hodeidah districts.
Documentation of the downed UAVs revealed they were all DJI Mavic RC COTS hobby drones, to which compatible commercial payload release mechanisms were attached, designed to carry a single munition.
The bomblets were all of an almost identical improvised model that began to appear in Yemen in February this year, one of whose hallmarks is a base-detonating fuse – an uncommon means of initiation but one that has been documented in the past with improvised bomblets for drones in several arenas around the world.
The identical components of the platform and the dispensers – commercial and relatively easy to obtain – and the same improvised bomblet model, indicate the existence of an active, extensive and continuous production line for this platform, which seems to have proven its effectiveness.
Interestingly, despite its prevalence, and compared to other models of armed UAVs used by the Houthis, this platform has not been declared as one of the organization’s “official” weapons.
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