Archive: September 12, 2024

How a sailor shortage is crippling ship maintenance at sea

The Navy’s manning shortages are curbing the service’s ability to repair its ships while at sea, according to a watchdog report released Monday.

Sixty-three percent of executive officers — a ship’s second-in-command — surveyed reported that insufficient manning made it “moderately to extremely difficult to complete repairs while underway,” according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday.

At-sea basic maintenance and repairs are critical to ensuring a ship can carry out its mission, according to the GAO.

But Monday’s report, based on interviews of sailors and leaders across the fleet, reveals that basic maintenance duties and repairs are hindered not only by manning shortages, but also by inaccurate Navy guidelines and substandard training.

As of late last year, the Navy was lacking nearly 14,000 enlisted sailors to keep its aircraft carriers, surface ships and attack submarines properly manned, according to the GAO.

The watchdog also found that aircraft carriers, cruisers and amphibious assault ships did not have enough enlisted sailors assigned to them to meet requirements for safe operations as laid out by the Navy Manpower Analysis Center.

Navy should be ‘offended’ by its own maintenance and manning faults, admiral says

“The Navy has not provided crew levels sufficient to meet the ship maintenance workload,” one sailor told GAO investigators.

This results in a smaller crew having to do more work, compounding the stressors of ship life.

“More capable sailors that perform a lot of maintenance get burned out and tired of taking up the slack for other sailors and leave the Navy to do the same work for better pay and working conditions,” another sailor said in the report.

Exacerbating the manning shortages are sailors assigned to a specific ship who may not always be on hand for duty, due to illness or temporary assignments to another ship.

“Navy executive officers and sailors told GAO there were widespread concerns about sailor training,” the report states.

Sailors also aren’t always prepared for their jobs aboard ships, and those serving in maintenance-heavy roles “may be less experienced than other sailors on that same ship,” according to the GAO.

Training for sailor-led maintenance is also insufficient, sailors told the watchdog.

Sailors attend A school after boot camp to get initial training with instructors and computers, but some interviewed by GAO questioned how well A school prepared them for their shipboard duties.

“Specifically, sailors expressed dissatisfaction with both the quality of training — whether it prepares them to perform maintenance aboard ship — and the format in which training is delivered,” the report said.

The Navy is working to enhance sailor-led maintenance training through its Ready Relevant Learning initiative, which involves distributing videos of sailor-led maintenance to schoolhouses, according to the report.

The Navy is also aiming to share these videos with sailors via cloud based services and remote support.

Still, videos for certain maintenance specialties like electrical repair are not yet available, and some sailors noted that video training is not always reliable on the ship, given limited bandwidth.

“More (maintenance) training should be conducted before a sailor arrives at their ship and while they are transitioning between commands,” one sailor told the GAO.

The GAO offered several recommendations, including that the service improve the “quality of information on the number of ship’s crew available for duty” and guarantee that personnel numbers and skill levels for certain kinds of maintenance are tailored for specific ships and classes.

“The Navy’s guidelines for performing ship maintenance are sometimes inaccurate with respect to the time and personnel needed and are not written appropriately for sailors’ maintenance skills and supervisor’s experience levels,” the watchdog said. “Ensuring the Navy’s guidelines better reflect the actual number and skill level of maintenance personnel will enhance sailors’ ability to maintain ships.”

The Navy agreed with these recommendations, according to the watchdog.

The GAO surveyed executive officers from 232 ships in the fleet with a 91% response rate and met with more than 140 leaders and 200 sailors on 25 ships for the report, which began in January 2023 and ended earlier this month.

Go here to read the full report.

Turkey advances plan for a national air-defense shield

ISTANBUL — Turkey has finalized key plans for its Çelik Kubbe – Steel Dome – air defense system, a project designed to enhance the nation’s airspace security with advanced, multilayered defense capabilities.

The decision came during the second meeting of the Defence Industry Executive Committee (SSIK), chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last month. The Steel Dome aims to integrate a wide range of air defense assets, creating a real-time operational picture and enabling centralized control with the help of artificial intelligence.

The Steel Dome is a domestic initiative developed by Aselsan in collaboration with Roketsan and Turkish government research institute TÜBİTAK SAGE. It brings together existing and future sensors, communication networks, and weapons under one system for comprehensive airspace protection.

The project’s goal is to establish a unified defense network capable of defending Turkey against emerging aerial threats like drones and missiles.

According to Sıtkı Egeli, an associate professor at İzmir University of Economics, the Steel Dome is not entirely new but rather an effort to integrate various air and missile defense systems developed over the past decade.

“The real key to successful air defense is not just having the right weapons, but integrating all these components under a single command and control system,” he said.

As envisioned, short-range systems like the Korkut self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and Sungur missiles will form the dome’s inner layer. Medium-range Hisar A+ and Hisar O (RF) missiles will engage threats in the middle layer, while the outermost layer will rely on the long-range SİPER missile, which is expected to exceed a range of 100 kilometers. Roketsan is developing an advanced version of SİPER that will extend the range to 150 kilometers.

Turkey is incorporating Aselsan-made radars and communication systems, including the HERİKKS air defense command and control system and the RADNET radar network at the hub of the behemoth program. The components are designed to create a real-time air picture for decision-makers.

Non-kinetic interceptors like the Gökberk laser weapon and the Alka direct-energy weapon also are slated for eventual incorporation into the Steel Dome, but those technologies still need development.

According to Egeli, Turkey had planned to use the ACCS (Air Command Control System) architecture, developed in the 2000s for joint use by all NATO members, as the brains of the new program. But unresolved issues over the alliance software led Turkey to develop a national solution as a supplement instead, he said.

Egeli added said that the Russian S-400 air defense system, purchased by Turkey in 2017, will not be part of the Steel Dome architecture, as the S-400 does not align with Turkey’s long-term air defense strategy.

Iran sending Russia batch of close-range missiles, Pentagon says

Iran has sent close-range ballistic missiles to Russia, which could start using them to attack Ukraine “within weeks,” Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

The missiles can reach a maximum of 75 miles and allow Russia to maintain its stocks of more valuable, and more menacing, long-range fires, according to Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

While Russia hasn’t yet used them, Ryder said dozens of its military personnel have trained inside Iran on the missile system — known as the Fath 360. Ryder wouldn’t specify how many Russia has received, but the U.S. Treasury Department said that Moscow signed a contract late last year for “hundreds” of missiles, with the first such batch now arriving.

“This is a deeply concerning development,” Ryder said during a Tuesday briefing.

Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, Russia has relied on its partners — in almost all cases other U.S. adversaries — to refill its stocks. Iran has been a particularly avid supplier, shipping one-way attack drones, missiles and other lethal aid to Russia throughout the war.

In return, Russia is sharing other information with Iran, including on nuclear and space technology, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.

“This is a two-way street,” said Blinken, who is traveling to Kyiv to meet with members of the Ukrainian government.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin gathered a group of countries that regularly meet to support Ukraine’s self-defense. There, as in past meetings, the officials discussed how to supply Kyiv with enough air defense missiles and batteries. Russia has routinely battered Ukrainian military and civilian targets during the war, and in recent weeks launched its two largest salvos to date.

In response, Ukraine has asked repeatedly that the U.S. lift limits on how far inside Russia it can fire its own long-range weapons provided by the U.S. The White House so far has declined to do so, in part out out of concern that looser rules could escalate the war and in part because the long-range ATACMS missiles are scarce.

“I don’t believe one specific capability will be decisive,” Austin said after the meeting last week, arguing also that Russia had already moved almost all of its threatening aircraft out of range.

Russia launches massive naval drills with China

The Russian military on Tuesday launched massive naval and air drills spanning across both hemispheres and including China in joint maneuvers.

The “Ocean-24” exercise spans the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, the Mediterranean, Caspian and Baltic Seas and involves over 400 warships, submarines and support vessels, more than 120 planes and helicopters and over 90,000 troops, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The maneuvers will continue through Sept. 16, the ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in comments to military officials that the war games are the largest of their kind in three decades, and that China’s warships and planes were taking part. China confirmed that on Monday, saying the two countries’ navies would cruise together in Pacific, but gave no details.

A total of 15 countries have been invited to observe the drills, Putin said, without naming them.

“We pay special attention to strengthening military cooperation with friendly states. Today, in the context of growing geopolitical tensions in the world, this is especially important,” Putin said.

The Russian leader accused the United States of “trying to maintain its global military and political dominance at any cost,” seeking “to inflict a strategic defeat” on Russia in its war with Ukraine and to “break the established security architecture and balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region.”

“Under the pretext of countering the allegedly existing Russian threat and containing the People’s Republic of China, the United States and its satellites are increasing their military presence near Russia’s western borders, in the Arctic and in the Asia-Pacific region,” Putin said, stressing that “Russia must be prepared for any development of the situation.”

Russia and China, along with other U.S. critics such as Iran, have aligned their foreign policies to challenge and potentially overturn the Western-led liberal democratic order.

With joint exercises, Russia has sought Chinese help in achieving its long-cherished aim of becoming a Pacific power, while Moscow has backed China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere.

Russia’s Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said the drills are aimed to train “repelling large-scale aggression of a potential enemy from ocean directions, combating unmanned boats, unmanned aerial vehicles, defending naval bases, conducting amphibious operations and escorting transports.”

NATO shepherds 10 firms whose tech could help the alliance

NATO’s defense technology accelerator announced Tuesday it picked 10 companies to transition to the second phase of competition, which not only brings additional funding but tailored support as they look to break into the national security sector.

The firms are part of the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic’s inaugural cohort, which NATO announced last year. The organization, known as DIANA, chose 44 companies for Phase I, selecting firms whose technology could address needs in both defense and commercial markets.

The companies participated in a competition series last fall that took place across five cities: Tallinn, Estonia; Turin, Italy; Copenhagen, Denmark; Boston; and Seattle. During the events, companies used emerging technology to solve real-world defense challenges.

“To move into Phase II, innovators had to demonstrate progress in their commercial and defense market potential, the technical viability and novelty of their solutions, and their investment readiness,” NATO said in a statement. “Review panels comprised technical, defense and innovation experts.”

The 10 companies that will transition to the next phase of DIANA’s challenge series are:

· Aquark Technologies, a quantum firm based in the United Kingdom

· Astrolight, a laser communications company in Lithuania

· Dolphin Labs, an ocean-observation company in the U.S.

· Ephos, a computing firm based in Italy

· Goldilock, a UK-based privacy firm

· IONATE, a U.K. firm specializing in smart energy platforms

· Lobster Robotics, a mapping company based in the Netherlands

· Phantom Photonics, a Canadian quantum sensing company

· Revobeam, a polish antenna firm

· Secqai, a computing company in the U.K.

The selected firms will receive up to €300,000 ($330,000).

DIANA is jointly funded, which means NATO doesn’t draw from the common fund that allies are required to contribute toward. Instead, member nations choose whether to pay into DIANA. The U.S. Defense Department last year appointed Jeffrey Singleton, U.S. principal member and head of the delegation to the NATO Science and Technology Board, as the U.S. representative to DIANA’s board of directors.

The accelerator has more than 100 affiliated test centers across nearly every country that partners with NATO. That includes 28 “deep-tech” accelerators, two of which are located in North America.

Boeing to launch space-based quantum demo in 2026

Defense giant Boeing today announced plans to demonstrate quantum networking in space — a technological feat that, if successful, could help change the way the military processes data and identifies targets.

The company plans to launch the effort, dubbed Q4S, in 2026 using its own research-and development money. The experiment will demonstrate a concept called entanglement swapping — the ability to bring together, or entangle, the quantum states surrounding particles that haven’t previously interacted. The process is required to build expansive, hack-resistant networks in space.

Boeing set out to tackle the entanglement swapping challenge in 2021 with the goal to move as quickly as possible to push quantum technology as far as it could, according to Jay Lowell, chief engineer for disruptive computing, networks and sensors. Through the demonstration, the company hopes to learn more about how to build quantum networks that could prove transformational for a number of industries, including defense.

“We chose a goal that nobody else had accomplished, and we saw no one out there trying to do this,” Lowell told Defense News in a recent interview. “We knew it needed to be done to get where we want to go, which is the development of global quantum networks that connect sensors and computers around the world.”

The U.S. government spends about $1 billion each year on quantum technology development through its National Quantum Initiative, which it established in 2018 to help maintain an edge over China.

In the last decade, China has conducted several significant experiments aimed at reaching breakthroughs in quantum networking. In 2016, the country’s Quantum Experiments at Space Scale demo showed that it was possible to establish quantum keys across long distances. In 2022, it followed up that effort with the Jinan-1 launch, generating keys at a much faster rate.

Lowell described entanglement swapping as “more than twice as hard” as key distribution.

“From an impact perspective, these are the technologies that we need to validate are going to work in order to have the hope of building the quantum networks we want to build,” he said.

The yearlong mission aims to demonstrate entanglement swapping between two sources within a single satellite. Working with its payload and technology partner, HRL Laboratories, Boeing has completed several key design reviews and will run an integrated payload test this month. The payload is slated to be delivered within a year, Lowell said.

California-based Astro Digital, which is building the satellite the payload will fly on, will start production of the spacecraft in 2025.

Boeing’s focus throughout design and testing has been to build backups and contingencies into the system to reduce risk of mission failure, Lowell said.

“There are only a few things that, if they fail, we’re dead,” he said. “We’re pretty confident that if those few things work, everything else will go fine and we will get very useful information out of this experiment.”

If Q4S is able to demonstrate entanglement swapping within one spacecraft, Boeing’s next target is to develop a multi-satellite experiment to prove the capability works within a small, space-based network. Lowell said the company is exploring government and commercial partnerships for the next phase, but could also build the mission with internal funding.

Q4S and any future experiments are part of a broader emphasis within Boeing on demonstrating new technologies as well as how those capabilities fit within the company’s existing portfolio, he noted.

“The better we do that, the easier it is for our customers to understand the context of what it is that they’re getting in a way that’s recognizable to them,” Lowell said. “The better conceived the demonstration is, the closer it allows the customer to see the vision that we have and to start sharing in that vision or even pull us along further towards their vision.”

Ukraine’s fire-dropping drones can find, shock Russian troops: experts

MILAN — The Ukrainian military has begun utilizing first-person-view drones with a thermite spray capability over forested areas where Russian troops and equipment are hiding, a tactic that experts say can be a legitimate weapon of war, but only under strict circumstances.

On Sept. 2, footage emerged online showing what appeared to be a Ukrainian low-cost first-person-view drone, or FPV, carrying an incendiary burning mixture that it sprayed along a dense line of trees where Russian troops were suspected.

It was later reported by Ukrainian media outlet Militarnyi that the Ukrainian Mountain Infantry had received thermite munitions – which include a powdered mix of aluminum and iron oxide capable of burning at temperatures exceeding 2,200 degrees Celsius – that were mounted on drones and dropped on Russian positions.

Experts believe that the use of such weapons is two-fold, acting as both a cheap way to expose enemy locations and to cause fear among the invading troops.

“The primary use of these thermite FPV drones is as a defoliant to remove the tree and foliage cover that Russian troops and vehicles are using for concealment in tree lines; and secondarily likely intended as a psychological weapon due to the nature of the effects thermite would produce in contact with skin,” Justin Bronk, senior research fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said.

In addition, the high-temperatures of the blend can damage or destroy caches of equipment and ammunition in a single sortie, Federico Borsari, resident fellow at the U.S. Center for European Policy Analysis, noted.

“They can be employed for specific purposes for which explosive effects are not ideal, and be useful to burn abandoned vehicles, for instance, saving explosive warheads for missions requiring kinetic effects,” he said.

The two experts said FPVs are suitable drone variants to deliver the burning mixture at slow speed because of their low cost and precise maneuverability.

As incendiary weapons have become more common in the war, analysts have been flagging concerns over harm to civilians. For example, in 2023, Russia reportedly used thermite bombs in eastern Ukraine over residential neighborhoods, according to a video on social media that was picked up by the Youtube channel of The Telegraph newspaper.

Dangers in using thermite include the possibility of causing out-of-control fires that risk burning down civilian infrastructure and non-military targets.

The use of thermite munitions is not banned per say, but neither is it straightforward, experts say.

“It would be legitimate and legal to use them as defoliants to remove cover, and this holds unless they would a) hit civilians or b) there was a significant risk the subsequent fire would endanger civilians – contrast this with Russian use of thermite last year in an indiscriminate manner,” Matthew Savill, director of military science at RUSI, wrote in an email to Defense News.

Under the Geneva Conventions, deliberately targeting civilian areas with incendiary weapons constitutes a war crime, yet Moscow has paid little consideration to adhering to international norms during the course of the war.

Russian forces have used other fire-inducing weapons such as the 9M22S incendiary cluster rocket, used for the 122mm caliber Grad rocket artillery system, Bronk said.

Savill notes that throughout the war, Ukraine has largely been able to contrast its adherence to international conflict laws against Russian behavior, an important appearance he presumes Kyiv will strive to maintain.

“I would expect that however they choose to use thermite, they would want to keep that distinction,” he said.

EU told to hire defense commissioner to compete with US

ROME — If the European Union wants to compete with the United States in the global defense market it must appoint a dedicated defense commissioner, push joint procurement by member states and curb anti-trust rulings to promote industry consolidation, a new report has claimed.

The recommendations were part of a long to-do list included in the report on boosting EU competitiveness issued by former European Central Bank governor Mario Draghi which will be closely read by officials in Brussels.

The section on Europe’s defense sector urges member states to jointly procure weapons, thus encouraging the continent’s firms to team up to build them, creating essential integration on both the supply and demand side.

For years, the opposite has been true, as member states hand orders to their local industries, thus ensuring the continent has 12 main battle tank programs compared to one in the United States.

The EU’s fresh designs for funding a defense resurgence, explained

“Insufficient aggregation and coordination of public spending in Europe compounds industrial fragmentation,” the report states.

Noting that European states have supplied ten different howitzer types to Ukraine, the report claims the land sector is the least integrated, followed by the naval industry.

Relative integration in the aircraft industry in Europe has produced success stories like the A-330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft, the report said.

With a turnover of €135 billion in 2022 and a workforce of half a million, the defense industry has its strong points, the report adds, claiming it beats the U.S. in sectors including main battle tanks, conventional submarines, naval shipyard technology, helicopters and transport aircraft.

But Europe’s defense spending, at $313 billion, is around a third of the $916 billion spent by the U.S. in 2023, it added.

“If all EU member states who are members of NATO who have not yet reached the 2% target would do so in 2024, this would translate into approximately an additional €60 billion ($66 billion) in defense spending,” the report stated.

As nations looked to their own procurement needs, only 18% of total EU spending was on collaborative programs in 2022, well below the bloc’s target of 35%, the report said.

At the same time, insufficient integration was occurring between cross-border firms, compared to the U.S., where the number of “main players” has shrunk from 51 in 1990 to five.

One reason firms were not merging in Europe was tough anti-trust legislation, the report said, claiming, “EU competition enforcement may prevent or discourage businesses from merging and scaling up, particularly those creating market power.”

In a list of recommendations to member states, the report urged them to “scale back existing industrial capacities, where needed,” in order to avoid “full mirroring and duplication of capabilities.”

European Union weighs creation of air defense shield

It also urged a “commonly agreed specialization strategy among companies from participating member states reallocating capacities and reinforcing respective domains of excellence.”

To achieve that, the EU needed a new ”Defence Industry Commissioner, with the appropriate structure and funding to define, coordinate and implement an EU defense industrial policy fit for today’s new geopolitical context,” the report said.

Another task for a commissioner would be boosting research-and-development spending in the sector. Europe now spends just €10.7 billion a year, around 4.5% of total defense spending, compared to the United States, which spends a mammoth $140 billion, around 16% of all spending.

“The bulk of investment takes place at the member state level,” the report stated. “But several new or technically complex segments – such as drones, hypersonic missiles, directed-energy weapons, defense artificial intelligence and seabed and space warfare – call for pan-European coordination. No member state can effectively finance, develop, produce and sustain all the necessary capabilities and infrastructure that are required to maintain leadership in these technologies.”

One consequence of limited European investment in new technology was a continued preference by local buyers for U.S. kit. “Of a total of €75 billion spent by member states between June 2022 and June 2023, 78% of procurement spending was diverted to purchases from suppliers located outside the EU, out of which 63% based in the U.S.,” the report said, adding that U.S. Foreign Military Sales in Europe increased by 89% between 2021 and 2022.

“At the same time, the U.S. market remains closed for European companies,” it added.

European states liked the “administrative simplicity and better visibility of what is available,” thanks to the Foreign Military Sales program, and had “poor knowledge … of what is the actual offer from the European defense industry.”

To rectify this, the report pushes for “a political commitment” or “reformed public-procurement legislation, which would indicate that EU solutions would need to be considered as first options,” by European buyers.

If U.S. products were purchased by multiple EU states, they should cooperate to “achieve better terms and, where needed, European specifications of U.S. defense products, including local production and support, freedom of action rights, customization” and intellectual property rights, the report said.

EU buys too much defense equipment abroad, especially from US: Report

BRUSSELS — European Union countries are buying too much of their defense equipment abroad, almost two-thirds of it in the United States, and failing to invest enough in joint military projects, a landmark report on EU competitiveness warned Monday.

The 27 member states are also failing to make best use of Europe’s research and development capacities to modernize their armed forces, with just a fraction the level of U.S. investment, said the report by former Italian prime minister and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

The report comes as the EU continues to struggle to find enough weapons and ammunition to help Ukraine survive the full-scale Russian invasion, now in its third year, and to kickstart Europe’s defense industry.

Ukraine, EU defense firms discuss setting up local production

“Europe is wasting its common resources. We have large collective spending power, but we dilute it across multiple different national and EU instruments,” said Draghi’s report, which has been a year in the making and is likely to fuel an overhaul of the bloc’s industrial strategy.

Part of the problem, it said, is failing to invest properly in Europe to create stronger defense firms.

“We are still not joining forces in the defense industry to help our companies to integrate and reach scale,” it said. The report pointed out that “we also do not favor competitive European defense companies.”

The report notes that, between mid-2022 and mid-2023, 63% of all EU defense orders were placed with U.S. companies, and a further 15% with other non-EU suppliers. Last week, the Netherlands joined a list of EU members to order big budget U.S.-made F-35 warplanes.

Across the 27 nations in 2022, defense research and development spending amounted to 10.7 billion euros ($11.8 billion) — just 4.5% of the total — compared with $140 billion in the United States, or around 16% of all defense spending.

NATO allies — almost all of whose members are part of the EU — have been ramping up defense spending since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Their aim is for each country to spend at least 2% of gross domestic product on their national defense budget.

Consecutive U.S. leaders have been exhorting European allies and Canada to spend more on defense for more than a decade, although former President Donald Trump was the only one to threaten to refuse to defend any country that did not respect the goal. Much of the money goes back to U.S. industry.

NATO forecasts that 23 of its 32 members will meet or exceed the 2% target by the end of the year, up from just three countries in 2014. Western defense spending has been further spurred by Russia’s fully fledged invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

On top of this, NATO allies also want to dedicate at least 20% of their national defense expenditures to major new equipment. That includes funds for research and development, which is crucial for modernizing their armed forces.

The report highlighted the shortcomings of countries investing in their national defense industry rather than joint procurement. When Ukraine appealed for artillery, for example, EU countries supplied 10 types of howitzers. Some use different 155mm shells, causing logistical headaches.

In contrast, the A-330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport plane was developed jointly, and this allowed participating countries to pool resources and share operating and maintenance costs.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim they shot down another US MQ-9 drone

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed early Sunday they shot down another American-made MQ-9 drone flying over the country, marking potentially the latest downing of the multimillion-dollar surveillance aircraft. The U.S. launched airstrikes over Houthi-controlled territory afterward, the rebels said.

The U.S. military told The Associated Press it was aware of the claim but has “received no reports” of American military drones being downed over Yemen.

The rebels offered no pictures or video to support the claim as they have in the past, though such material can appear in propaganda footage days later.

All the Houthi-US Navy incidents in the Middle East (that we know of)

However, the Houthis have repeatedly downed General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones in the years since they seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014. Those attacks have exponentially increased since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and the Houthis launched their campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree made the claim in a prerecorded video message. He said the Houthis shot down the drone over Yemen’s Marib province, a long-contested area home to key oil and gas fields that’s been held by allies of a Saudi-led coalition battling the rebels since 2015.

Saree offered no details on how the rebels down the aircraft. However, Iran has armed the rebels with a surface-to-air missile known as the 358 for years. Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in seaborne shipments heading to Yemen despite a United Nations arms embargo.

The Houthis “continue to perform their jihadist duties in victory for the oppressed Palestinian people and in defense of dear Yemen,” Saree said.

Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The aircraft have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA over Yemen for years.

After the claim, the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel reported multiple U.S.-led airstrikes near the city of Ibb. Late Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it had “destroyed three Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicles and two missile systems in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen,” without elaborating.

The Americans have been striking Houthi targets intensely since January.

The Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

Those attacks include the barrage that struck the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea. Salvagers last week abandoned an initial effort to tow away the burning oil tanker, leaving the Sounion stranded and its 1 million barrels of oil at risk of spilling.