Yemen’s Houthis Show Growing Sophistication and Self-Reliance in Weaponry

Yemen’s Houthis Show Growing Sophistication and Self-Reliance in Weaponry - The New York Times

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Yemen’s Houthi Militants Are Learning to Arm Themselves

The Houthis are increasingly using artificial intelligence and other tools to produce advanced weaponry on their own, making them less reliant on Iran.

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!Dark brown smoke obscures a Saudi oil refinery.

*Smoke from an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia after a Houthi attack last week.

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By

Nicholas Kulish

Nicholas Kulish writes about the changing technologies and tactics used in conflicts around the world.

Sept. 15, 2026, 10:02 a.m. ET

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The popular image of Yemen’s Houthi rebels is of men on the backs of pickup trucks, firing AK-47s into the desert air.

Yet the group has launched long-range missile strikes at Israel, more than a thousand miles away. The Houthis prey on ship traffic in the Red Sea with naval drones. And evidence points to their growing ambition to use artificial intelligence and other means to produce more advanced weaponry themselves, making them less reliant on their sponsors in Iran.

Though they are backed by Iran, for months the Houthis remained on the sidelines of this year’s fighting in the region. That ended in July, when they declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia. Since then, they have marched south, seizing the historic port city of Mokha last week while capturing islands near the narrow strait known as the Bab al-Mandab, tightening the group’s grip on the choke point at the southern end of the Red Sea.

“They use every opportunity to build their capability, to test their capability, such that they are now the most lethal nonstate actor in the entire Middle East,” said Timothy A. Lenderking, the former U.S. special envoy for Yemen, speaking at a Middle East Institute forum on Friday.

A report by Anthropic last week on the misuse of A.I. said that “a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen,” where the Houthis have their stronghold, used Claude for “a sustained effort to develop guided weapons.” Despite Anthropic’s safeguards, the company said, the cell proceeded as far as the test firing of a guided rocket.

The Houthis still rely on their Iranian sponsors for the most sophisticated components in their drones and ballistic missiles, but as the Anthropic report suggested, in recent years they have become much more advanced at building their own weapons systems.

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