Houthis release footage of drone attack on Abrams tank

Houthi media released footage this week showing a Rajum quadcopter dropping a munition onto a Royal Saudi Land Forces M1A2S Abrams main battle tank at a forward position in Marib, Yemen, followed by an explosion and a fire that engulfed the vehicle.

The video has not been independently verified, and neither the Saudi-led coalition nor the Royal Saudi Land Forces has commented on the claimed strike. The Houthi movement has released similar footage of attacks on Saudi armor throughout Yemen’s civil war, and Yemeni and Saudi authorities have not always confirmed the group’s claims.

The M1A2S is a Saudi-specific variant of the American M1A2 Abrams, based on the U.S. Army’s System Enhancement Package configuration. Saudi Arabia requested the upgrade of its Abrams fleet to the M1A2S standard in 2006, and General Dynamics Land Systems has produced long-lead materials and conversion kits for the program since at least 2009. Some export versions of the tank, including Saudi Arabia’s, are believed to lack the depleted uranium armor panels used on U.S. Army Abrams tanks.

The Rajum is one of several drone types the Houthis have publicly named as part of their arsenal. Houthi media identified the Rajum alongside other unmanned systems, including the Wa’id, Samad-4, Shahab, Khatif, and Mersad, during a 2021 weapons showcase. The group has not disclosed the Rajum’s payload capacity, range, or flight endurance.

Marib has been a focal point of renewed fighting in Yemen’s civil war in recent weeks. The Houthis launched missile and drone strikes on Saudi-backed government positions in Marib and Hadramout Governorate in early August, an attack Yemen’s government said killed at least 30 soldiers, among the deadliest single episodes of the conflict in years. The Houthis said the operation targeted troop concentrations, weapons depots, and military vehicles at the Sahn al-Jinn camp north of Marib city, following what Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree described as surveillance of Saudi-backed force movements.

The attacks have continued through August. The Houthis struck Marib and the Red Sea port city of al-Makha on Aug. 16, killing at least four people, according to local media. Yemeni government air defenses have intercepted some of the group’s drones over Marib in recent weeks, though the government has not disclosed an interception rate or overall loss figures for the period.

Saudi Arabia’s Abrams fleet has been targeted by Houthi anti-tank weapons since at least 2015, when the group began using Soviet-designed Konkurs missiles and Iranian-produced variants against Saudi armor along the Yemen-Saudi border. The use of a drone rather than a guided missile to strike a tank reflects a broader shift in Houthi tactics toward multirotor and fixed-wing drones capable of dropping small munitions, a method more commonly used by both sides in Yemen against personnel and lightly armored vehicles.

The Royal Saudi Land Forces has not confirmed the loss of a tank in the claimed Rajum strike, and independent battle-damage assessment has not been possible using the available footage. The current scale of Saudi armor losses in Yemen, and the number of M1A2S tanks upgraded to that standard, have not been disclosed by Saudi Arabia.