Drones in the Yemen / Red Sea conflict
The Yemen conflict and Red Sea escalation have featured Houthi one-way attack UAVs against military and commercial maritime targets, alongside coalition counter-UAS operations.
What drones are documented here?
UN reporting is strongest for Samad and Qasef family attribution; current coalition releases often identify only one-way attack UAVs without naming a model.
| Drone | Manufacturer | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samad-3 Sammad-3 · Sammad series | Houthi military-industrial network; UN reporting alleges Iranian assistance but does not establish a single commercial manufacturer | Long-range one-way attack and reconnaissance UAV family. | Reported attribution |
| Qasef-2K Qasef-2K UAV · Qasef family | Houthi military-industrial network; often analyzed as Iranian-linked, with attribution varying by source | Shorter-range one-way attack UAV used by Houthi forces. | Reported attribution |
How the evidence should be interpreted
This page maps named platforms to the conflict based on the sources below. It does not turn a manufacturer’s product page into proof of a particular battlefield event, and it does not treat every military statement as independently verified. The individual drone pages explain exactly what each source establishes.
The word “used” can mean different things: a platform may be fielded by a combatant, supplied to a combatant, identified in debris, or named in an official inventory. Those are different evidence levels, which is why this page shows the status beside every system.
Conflict timeline
2015–present; maritime escalation from late 2023
Regional and producer context
This page is a conflict inventory for Yemen and the Red Sea, not a full Middle East drone map.
For theater routing across Iran, Gaza, Yemen, and adjacent conflicts, continue on Middle East drones.
Where open sources allege Iranian-linked design or supply chains, keep evidence labels intact and use Iran drones for program-side context rather than collapsing every attribution into this war page.
Yemen / Red Sea conflict drone FAQ
What drones are documented in the Yemen / Red Sea conflict?
Samad-3, Qasef-2K are the named systems in this first-release evidence set. The list is not a claim that these are the only drones present in the conflict.
How reliable is drone identification in the Yemen / Red Sea conflict?
Reliability varies. Official releases and manufacturer records support confirmed entries; open-source and monitoring reports support reported entries. Incident-level claims need separate verification.
Conflict sources
- UN Yemen Panel report on Samad-3 engines (official)
- UN Yemen Panel report on Qasef-2K and Samad-type UAVs (official)
- US CENTCOM Red Sea UAV attack release (official)