Israel hits Houthis with Popeye and Rampage
The Israeli attack come after a surge in attacks against Israel by the Iranian-backed Houthis, and was the third such raid by the Israeli Air Force (IDF/AF). The IDF later…
December 20, 2024
The Israeli attack come after a surge in attacks against Israel by the Iranian-backed Houthis, and was the third such raid by the Israeli Air Force (IDF/AF). The IDF later said that it had “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen, including ports and energy infrastructure in Sana’a, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.” The Houthi group described its own attack as being directed against “two specific and sensitive military targets” near Tel Aviv.
Israeli media reports indicated that some 14 aircraft were involved, including F-16I Sufa and F-15D Baz carrying out the strike, together with various enablers, including aerial refuelling tankers and ISR aircraft.
Piecing together Israeli media reports and a series of photos and announcements by the air force, it seems that the strike aircraft took off around 1:00 am (local), with the first wave hitting their targets in the coastal area of Yemen at around 3:15 am, while the second wave struck targets in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa at around 4:30 am. An IDF infographic would seem to suggest that the package routed through Saudi Arabian airspace en route to their missile launch points.
The aircraft involved in the mission seemed to have included F-16Is drawn from 201 Tayeset ‘The One Squadron’ based at Ramon (Kanaf 25) in the Negev desert, armed with IAI Rampage long-range, supersonic, air-to-surface missiles. The aircraft seem to have carried a pair of Rampage air to surface missiles (on stations 3 & 7), two 600-gallon wing tanks (stations 4 & 6), a 300-gallon centreline tank (station 5), and a pair of AIM-120 AMRAAMs (on the wingtip stations 1 & 9).
The F-15Ds involved seem to have been drawn from 106 Tayeset ‘The Point of the Spear Squadron’, based at Tel Nov (Bacha 8) near Tel Aviv. These were armed with the older Rafael Popeye air-to-surface missile, carrying a single missile below the starboard wing, a fuel tank to port, the missile’s datalink pod is clearly visible on the fuselage centreline, augmented by a single AMRAAM, and an ELL-8222 ECM pod.
