News - Yemen: A recent European report revealed that naval operations carried out by the Yemeni Armed Forces against ships linked to the Israeli enemy in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea have become a major turning point in the landscape of modern conflict, demonstrating that low-cost military tactics can upend traditional maritime power balances despite vast disparities in capabilities with Western fleets.

The report, published by the European outlet Modern Policy, said Yemen’s operations have clearly undermined the traditional deterrence model relied upon by major powers. It noted that asymmetric strategies have proven more effective and impactful than the overwhelming military power projected by the United States and Britain in the region.

According to the report, this shift marks a significant transformation in the nature of warfare, showing that actors with limited resources can reshape global power dynamics at minimal cost, while major states continue to spend billions to maintain their military dominance.

The analysis stated that the Yemeni attacks have exposed critical vulnerabilities in Western security architecture and that understanding non-conventional threats has become essential for interpreting today’s geopolitical realities.

It added that Yemen’s advantage does not lie solely in weapons capability, but in the ability to combine flexibility, low cost, and direct impact into a single coherent strategy that has proven effective on the ground.

The report noted that Yemen’s reliance on explosive drones and ballistic missiles has enabled it to strike commercial vessels worth billions of dollars, forcing global shipping companies to reroute immediately—adding significant logistical costs and directly affecting the economies targeted by these naval operations.

The outlet emphasized that a single drone attack can trigger an economic shock far exceeding the price of the weapon used, highlighting the power of asymmetric warfare and its ability to strike at the most sensitive vulnerabilities of adversaries.

It further explained that advanced warships have lost much of their value when confronted with precise, low-cost threats that are difficult to detect or intercept.

The report said the limited ability of the United States and Britain to stop these attacks—despite deploying advanced combat fleets in the Red Sea—reveals serious shortcomings in Western defense doctrine, which is increasingly unable to cope with emerging forms of warfare.

It added that Yemen’s strategic advantage is not only military, but also rooted in its exploitation of global economic interdependence through the Red Sea. Even a single attack, the report said, generates widespread alarm and forces international companies to reassess their routes immediately, giving Yemen’s naval operations a psychological and political weight far exceeding the material damage.

The European report concluded that Yemen understood early on the strategic value of creating uncertainty in Israeli and American shipping routes—an inexpensive yet effective tool that disrupts the targeted economies and reshapes the calculations of major powers. It described this as one of the most significant transformations in maritime warfare in recent decades. 

Over the past two years, the region has witnessed a sharp escalation driven by the Israeli enemy’s ongoing aggression in Gaza, the expanding conflict fronts in the Red Sea, and deepening geopolitical rifts among regional powers. Yemen has emerged as a central actor in the maritime arena, carrying out naval operations aimed at Israeli-linked and US-British–protected vessels, reshaping global shipping routes and challenging traditional Western deterrence strategies.