The Houthi rebels attack on the Dutch-flagged general cargo vessel MV Minervagracht on September 29 appears to have employed an anti-shipping cruise missiles, fired, according to tribesmen in the area, from an area called Mukayris in Al Bayda Province, controlled by the Houthis, according to a report published by The Maritime Executive .
From Mukayris, the report added that a cruise missile would need to overfly 50 miles of government-controlled but sparsely populated, mountainous territory before reaching the coastline, and then a further 100 miles before hitting the target.
To cover the 150-mile direct route from a launch point at Mukayris to a target such as the MV Minervagracht in the Gulf of Aden presents little challenge for the rebels, but Houthi ballistic and anti-ship cruise missiles used in attacks against moving ships at sea have often missed their targets, save when the terminal guidance of such attacks is aided by Houthi ‘spotters’ operating covertly in fishing boats loitering in the area.
For the attack on the MV Minervagracht at comparatively short range, the Houthis may well have been able to use a missile system with active radar terminal guidance, such as the Mandab-2, developed from the Iranian Nour/Ghadir family and based on the Chinese C-802.
In summary, the Gulf of Aden presents an attractive area to target, as the busy Maritime Security Transit Corridor (MSTC) that passes through this area carries both shipping risking the Suez Canal route, but additionally traffic for Djibouti, East Africa and onwards to the Cape. The Houthis may be reserving their dwindling longer-range inventory on targets in Israel and using shorter-range systems for targets in the Gulf of Aden.