Houthi Explosive Drone Boat Attacks Escalate Red Sea Danger

 Yemen’s Houthis  intensify their attacks on merchant ships with no  defense against the “sophisticated shift” in tactic, maritime security sources say.

Iran-aligned Houthi militants in over 70 attacks, have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least three seafarers. In recent weeks, at least three ships have been attacked by unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and in one incident it contributed to the sinking of the Tutor cargo ship. There was no such activity in November.

“These USVs, loaded with explosives, represent a sophisticated shift in asymmetric warfare tactics, enabling the Houthis to strike with precision and at a distance, thus minimizing their exposure to counter-attacks,” Dimitris Maniatis, CEO of Maritime Risk Managers MARISKS, said.

According to maritime security sources and Reuters analysis, there have been at least six defensive strikes on USVs by US-led coalition warships since February. In another emerging tactic, some of the USVs have been logged as potentially having dummies to resemble pirates in another psychological tactic aimed at confusing seafarers, an official with Greek maritime security company Diaplous said.

“In most cases we understand that the Houthis are using ‘spotters’ at sea, who often record the attack from a small distance, and on most (if not all) operations remotely steer the USV to the target,” MARISKS Maniatis added.

Insurance industry sources said that additional war risk premiums, paid when vessels sail through the Red Sea, were quoted up to 0.7% of the value of a ship in recent days from around 1% earlier this year, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars of extra costs and the latest threats could push rates higher in coming weeks.