Australian Report: The U.S. Military Should Take a Page from Houthi Tactics

NYN | Reports and analyses

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has suggested that the U.S. military could benefit from studying the combat tactics of Sanaa forces to prepare for potential future conflicts with China. The report argues that Sanaa forces’ success in exerting control over the sea from the shore is one of the pivotal shifts in military history.

In a report titled “A Lesson from the Houthis for the U.S. Army: How Can a Ground Force Wage Naval Warfare?” the institute published findings on Friday, stating that “the U.S. Army should consider borrowing a page from the playbook used by Houthi fighters in Yemen.”

The report explains, “The nature of warfare is constantly evolving, and the ongoing attacks the Houthis are carrying out in the Red Sea may represent one of the most significant turning points in military history.”

This shift, according to the report, involves “sea control and denial through the use of long-range precision missiles and autonomous drones launched from the shore, as the Houthis effectively combine anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and single-use attack drones to contest control over maritime shipping routes along the Red Sea coast.”

The report suggests that “the U.S. military should strive for similar capabilities in contested coastal environments against adversaries like China.” It adds, “Technically and tactically, the U.S. is moving in this direction, but it must fully embrace this strategy to avoid irrelevance in the major war that the U.S. is likely to face. In a Pacific war, heavy Army formations are unlikely to be available in the initial conflict phase in the Western Pacific.”

In such a Pacific conflict, the report predicts, “The Army would likely have to operate from distant island bases, attacking ships much like the Houthis do from within Yemen, and geographical dispersion would be a critical component of survivability in future wars.”

A key element of Houthi operations, the report notes, is their use of cheap, single-use attack drones and propeller-driven cruise missiles, which present an economically unsustainable challenge compared to the high cost of defensive interceptors like the SM-2 and SM-6.

The report continues, “Here, too, the U.S. Army could learn from the Houthis, adopting similar tactics. For example, DARPA’s work on attack drones could be a vital advancement in how the U.S. conducts offensive naval operations and achieves sea control or denial.”

The report concludes by suggesting that the U.S. Army and allied forces could achieve a game-changing advantage by learning from the Houthi strategy of controlling the sea from the shore using low-cost drones and long-range precision weapons, particularly if combined with air mobility.

It wraps up by stating that the Houthis “have, in any case, become teachers,” adding, “Their operations have demonstrated that sea control from the shore and sea denial can be highly effective. They have shown how the U.S. military and its partners should integrate new tactics and weapons systems into their forces before the next conflict arises.”