The new Trump administration has taken decisive action against the Houthi rebels in Yemen—including a multi-day aerial blitz directed against strategic targets within the group’s territory.
The Trump administration has made good on another one of its promises: to bring the fight to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen. The Houthis have been terrorizing international shipping since November 2023, in response to Israel’s war against Iranian-backed Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 terrorist attack against Israel.
Since then, the Houthis have sustained disruptive missile attacks aimed at global shipping in both the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
While former President Joe Biden took some action to defend international shipping—notably launching “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” a lukewarm deterrent mission against the Houthis—the new Trump administration has taken decisive action. A multi-day aerial blitz directed against strategic targets in Yemen has been conducted.
Of course, the Houthis have retaliated with their Iranian-provided anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as their fleet of drones.
Thus far, the U.S. Navy has held its ground and intensified its air war. The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman has deployed F/A-18E/F Super Hornets against the rebels, with loadouts of AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons (JSOW) and AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response munitions (SLAM-ER). Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) were also seen being installed on some of the Super Hornets.
Meanwhile, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, the USS Gettysburg, also launched Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise missiles at Houthi targets in Yemen.
Let’s look at some of these US systems in greater detail.
AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons (JSOW)
The AGM missile was primarily designed for air-to-ground attacks. It was built to provide low-cost, highly accurate air-to-ground attacks that can be launched from safe distances. This last part is an especially important feature, as the Houthis have erected expansive air defenses to protect their territory. In other words, the farther away from the target these weapons can be launched, the better.
The weapon comes in three different variants. One is equipped with a blast-fragmentation and penetrator warhead (AGM-154A). Another variant is meant for anti-armor roles (AGM-154B). And the other, the JSOW-C, uses a unitary 500-pound warhead for bunker-busting or high-value targets. It has an imaging infrared seeker for terminal guidance, enhancing its precision.
The JSOW lacks propulsion and glides to its target, using GPS and inertial navigation (INS) for midcourse guidance. Range varies by drop altitude, but it typically is around 24 miles from low altitude drops and 70 miles from high altitude drops. Its stealthy design and small radar cross-section make it hard to detect—and given the Houthis’ seeming inability to defend against weapons like the JSOW, it appears that they have trouble intercepting them.
The AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response Munitions (SLAM-ER)
An air-launched, precision-guided cruise missile developed by Boeing for the United States Navy and allied forces, the AGM-84H/K SLAM evolved from the older AGM-84E SLAM—itself a derivation of the earlier AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile. The AGM-84H SLAM is designed for long-range, all-weather strikes against high-value land and sea targets, offering enhanced range, accuracy, and flexibility over its predecessors.
This system has a range of over 155 nautical miles (178 miles) and can be launched from a safe standoff distance to keep the attacking aircraft out of enemy air defense range.
The missile uses a combination of GPS-aided inertial navigation for midcourse flight and imaging infrared (IIR) seeker for terminal guidance. This dual system ensures pinpoint accuracy, even in poor weather or against camouflaged targets. A 500-pound titanium-cased blast-fragmentation warhead, designed for penetration and lethality against hardened targets (like bunkers, ships, or infrastructure) is the real killer with this system
A two-way data link allows for “man-in-the-loop” control, meaning operators can redirect the missile mid-flight, adjust its aimpoint, or switch targets if the original is destroyed or deemed less critical. But the missile also supports “fire-and-forget” mode with automatic target recognition (ATR) for fully autonomous strikes.
Once launched, the SLAM-ER flies at subsonic speeds using a Teledyne J402 turbojet engine. It has redesigned wings for better aerodynamics and range. AGM-84H’s low-altitude flight path and stealthy design reduce detectability, too.
The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM)
A common misconception is that the JDAM is itself a missile. In fact, it is merely a guidance kit developed by the United States to convert an unguided, or “dumb,” bomb into an all-weather, precision-guided munition. The kits are relatively cheap and have a modular system that bolts onto existing free-fall bombs, giving them GPS and INS capabilities for accurate strikes from a safe distance.
JDAMs have been very popular among the U.S. and allied militaries since they were unveiled in the late 1990s.
The components for this system include a GPS receiver, INS, steerable fins, and strakes along the bomb body for added lift and stability. A JDAM can carry the 2,000-pound Mk 84 bomb, the 1,000-pound Mk 83 bomb, and the 500-pound Mk 82 bomb. GPS/INS allows for this system to navigate to preprogrammed coordinates. This system, too, has a “fire-and-forget” modality, adjusting its flight path midair to hit within a circular error probable (CEP) of about 16 feet in any weather condition at any time of day.
Dropped from up to 45,000 feet in the air, the JDAM can glide to target 17-23 miles.
The Tomahawk Cruise Missile
An iconic American missile system, the Tomahawk is an all-weather weapon meant primarily for precision strikes against land and sea targets. Built by Raytheon (though originally designed by General Dynamics), it has been a cornerstone of U.S. naval power since the 1980s.
There are multiple variants of these missiles, but the range of the weapon varies from 805 to 1,553 miles depending on the variant. The missile achieves a speed of around 550 miles per hour, powered by a Williams F107 turbofan engine after a solid-fuel booster first sends it from the ship or submarine launching it at distant enemy targets.
Not only does this system possess GPS and INS to keep it on track over long distances, but the Tomahawk utilizes a Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) system for low-altitude flights. TERCOM uses radar altimetry to match the ground below with preloaded maps.
What’s more, a Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation (DSMAC) compares onboard imagery to stored templates for pinpoint accuracy in the terminal phase. Some variants add satellite data links for in-flight retargeting, too.
Typically, a 1,000-pound conventional warhead (such as the WDU-36/B) is the primary killer for this system, but older nuclear versions (TLAM-N) existed as well.
Although these weapons have been around for decades, the reason they’ve been used more than 2,000 times in combat is because of their reliability—and the fact that they can operate over-the-horizon against a foe, such as the Houthis, armed with Iranian air defense systems and anti-ship missiles, makes them very useful to the U.S. Navy as they wage their war against the Houthis.
The Strategic Implications of the Houthi Strikes
The United States military under President Trump means to obliterate the Houthis. As this occurs, the Israelis are reopening their southern front against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Further, there is much talk that Israel, possibly with American assistance, is readying to strike Iranian nuclear weapons facilities—which might make these moves against the Houthis and Hamas as mere prelude to the wider strikes on Iran to come.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a contributor at Popular Mechanics, who consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Shutterstock / Andrey Shustov.
