While the Houthis have made strides in developing indigenous arms production, their arsenal continues to be reliant on support from Iran, according to an analysis published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Fabian Hinz , a Research Fellow for Defence and Military Analysis at IISS mentioned that when the United States returned last month to launching significant airstrikes aimed at degrading the Houthis’ military capabilities and bolstering freedom of navigation through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, President Donald Trump, in comments on social media, identified Iran as continuing to enable Houthi attacks.
He added “Trump’s comments play into a long-standing debate on the extent to which the Houthis operate as an instrument of Iranian policy. While some describe the group as a mere proxy, reliant on Iranian weapons transfers, others emphasize its political autonomy and capacity for local arms production.
Houthi rebels command and decision-making structures remain opaque, making it difficult to assess the degree of political and operational influence Iran exerts. However, the relatively well-documented nature of the Houthi missile and uninhabited-aerial-vehicle (UAV) arsenal, offers insight into the material dimension of the relationship.
In the case of the Houthis, United Nations investigations into recovered missile remnants and seized propellant-precursor materials provide evidence that Iran has transferred missile-production technology.
This divergence appears to be reflected in the composition of the Houthi missile inventory. At least some of the group’s CRBMs, with ranges of up to 200 km, are probably manufactured domestically, though critical components, including guidance systems, are probably still sourced from Iran. These could include close-range anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) such as the Faleq, Mayun and al-Bahr al-Ahmar. Notably, the Mouhit ASBM appears to be a conversion of a legacy RS-SA-2 (S-75 Dvina) surface-to-air missile system, originally a Soviet design, repurposed with Iranian guidance technology.
Medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM) used for strikes against Israel, however, are almost certainly supplied directly by Iran.
The status of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM, which have a range of 300–1,000 km) such as the Iranian Fateh-110, anti-ship variants of which have been employed in the Red Sea, is less clear. These systems are more complex than short-range artillery rockets but remain less sophisticated than MRBMs. While it remains more likely that the Houthis are importing these missiles ready-made, partial local production cannot be ruled out.
While the Houthis possess some local manufacturing capacity for ballistic missiles, land-attack and anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) appear to be supplied entirely by Iran. Critically, the group is not assessed to have the capability to produce the small turbojet engines required for these systems, nor the active radar-homing seekers used in anti-ship variants.
Although it cannot be ruled out that the Houthis have begun producing certain simpler components of the Quds (Paveh) land-attack cruise missile, such as composite airframe parts, seizures related to ASCMs have involved complete systems shipped in disassembled form, with Yemen-based activity limited to final assembly.
While key components related to guidance, control and propulsion even for simpler UAVs cannot be produced domestically, many of these are commercially available, enabling the Houthis to procure them independently from Iran where necessary. The use of Chinese-made DLE-170 engines by the Sammad 3 is one such example. Nevertheless, previously recovered Sammad airframes have also included Iranian-made components, such as gyroscopes.
More advanced one-way attack UAVs in Houthi service, such as the Shahed-131, Shahed-136 and long-range Yaffa, incorporate a higher proportion of Iranian-supplied systems. These include more powerful engines that are less accessible on the open market and, in the case of the Shahed series, more complex composite-airframe components.
Hinz Concluded that Despite incremental advances in domestic arms production, particularly in UAVs and CRBMs, the Houthis remain dependent on Iran for key technologies and advanced capabilities. Ongoing US strikes, which are known to be targeting Houthi production sites, are expected to further complicate efforts to expand domestic production of more advanced systems.