Houthis are trying to build an advanced missile of their own with parts from China, a weapons tracking group finds

The Houthis have spent this war firing other countries' missiles. The evidence now reaching investigators says they are trying to build their own.

Conflict Armament Research, a British based group that traces weapons in conflict zones, reported on Wednesday that the Houthis are attempting to manufacture an advanced medium range ballistic missile inside Yemen, modelled on Iran's Kheibar Shekan, a precision guided missile that can manoeuvre in its final approach to defeat air defences. The group's findings rest on shipments Yemen's internationally recognised government seized last year, two vessels found concealing missile equipment among ordinary cargo.

What was inside those shipments is what sets this apart from ordinary smuggling. Investigators identified custom made metal components for missile motors and airframes, stabilising fins, parts of a solid propellant rocket motor from the Kheibar Shekan series, and, alongside the weapon parts, production tools, testing equipment and heat resistant material used to shield missile sections. That is the kit of a factory, not of a stockpile. Shipping records tied the precision metal parts to a Chinese manufacturer that markets custom aerospace components. The company was not named. A senior analyst at the group said the imports raise the possibility that manufacturing is already under way, while noting that the concealment of Houthi facilities makes it impossible to establish how far the work has got.

Reuters, in an explainer published on Thursday, put the sourcing plainly: China has emerged as a particularly important commercial source of parts, while Iran continues to supply the specialised military technology, technical expertise and components that cannot be bought commercially. Beijing says it complies with export controls and with the United Nations arms embargo on the Houthis, and the origin of commercial parts does not by itself establish that the Chinese government authorised their intended use.

A missile of this class, with a range near 2,000 kilometres, would put all of Saudi Arabia and Israel within reach of a weapon the Houthis produce at home, at a moment when they are already striking Riyadh's airport and Saudi oil facilities with imported systems and when the air defences of American allies in the region are stretched thin by months of interceptions. Reuters also reported that Anthropic said last month a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen had used its Claude assistant to help develop software for a guided rocket and a planned longer range missile. An attempt is not a working weapon, and nothing in the report establishes that a Houthi built Kheibar Shekan has flown. What it establishes is intent, supply lines and tooling, documented from seized hardware.