The Yemeni Navy, officially the Yemeni Navy and Coastal Defence Forces, is the maritime component of the

Yemeni Armed Forces The Yemeni Armed Forces () are the military forces of the Republic of Yemen. They include the Yemeni Army (including the Republican Guard), Yemeni Navy (including the Marines) and the Yemeni Air Force (including the Air Defense Force). Since ...

. The navy was created in 1990 when

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Yemen South Yemen, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, abbreviated to Democratic Yemen, was a country in South Arabia that existed in what is now southeast Yemen from 1967 until Yemeni unification, its unification with the Yemen A ...

united. The Yemeni Navy was initially a very small and virtually non-existent force, as it lacked a sufficient naval fleet and struggled to enforce the smuggling of drugs that entered Yemen by sea. In 2006, however, Yemen purchased 10

Bay-class patrol boat The Bay class is a class of eight armed patrol boats, built by Austal and used by the Customs Marine Unit of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service. They entered service during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and are primarily used ...

s which became very effective at stopping drug trafficking to Yemen. The navy's Bay-class patrol boat fleet are currently being operated by the Yemeni Coast Guard. ORP Metalowiec in Gdynia

History

1990 merger

In 1990, on the

Yemeni unification The Yemeni unification () took place on 22 May 1990, when the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) and the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) united, forming the Republic of Yemen. Background (1918–1990) North Yemen became an ...

, the Navy of South Yemen was merged into the Navy of North Yemen. Of the 11,000 sailors/seamen and 2,700 officers in the PDRY Navy, half were forced into compulsory retirement. The South Yemeni Navy also consisted of 5 s, 8 s and 1 , all of which were transferred to the Yemeni Navy. The navy's major bases are located in

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

and

Hodeidah Hodeidah (), also transliterated as Hodeda, Hodeida, Hudaida or al-Hudaydah, is the fourth-largest city in Yemen and its principal port on the Red Sea and it is the centre of Al Hudaydah Governorate. As of 2023, it had an estimated population o ...

. There are also bases on

Socotra Socotra, locally known as Saqatri, is a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean. Situated between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, it lies near major shipping routes. Socotra is the largest of the six islands in the Socotra archipelago as ...

Mukalla Mukalla, officially the Mukalla City District, is a seaport and the capital city district of Yemen's largest governorate, Hadhramaut Governorate, Hadhramaut. The city is in the South Arabia, southern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the Gulf of A ...

and Perim island, which maintain naval support equipment. There is also a naval fortress under construction in Hodeidah.

Hanish Islands conflict

During the

Hanish Islands conflict The Hanish Islands conflict was a dispute between Yemen and Eritrea over the island of Greater Hanish in the Red Sea, one of the largest in the then disputed Zukur-Hanish archipelago. Fighting took place over three days from 15 December to 17 De ...

, Yemen prepared its navy for an assault on the Hanish Islands and on

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

. Eritrea accidentally destroyed a Russian ship, thinking it was a Yemeni ship. The invasion, however, never happened since Eritrea made agreements with Yemen which involved Eritrea taking over the islands. Yemen, however, later took over Zuqar Island, which created further tensions with the Eritrean government but did not lead to another war.

Yemeni Civil War

Since the outbreak of the civil war in Yemen in March 2015, at least some elements of the Navy are known to have sided with the

Houthi The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, is a Zaydi Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. It is predominantly made up of Zaydi Shias, with their namesake leadership being drawn largely ...

-dominated

Supreme Revolutionary Committee The Supreme Revolutionary Committee (), sometimes referred to as the Revolutionary Council or the Revolutionary Committee, was an interim body in Yemen formed by the Zaidiyyah Shia group Ansar Allah (more commonly known as the Houthis). In their ...

and the loyalists of former

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ali Abdullah Saleh Ali Abdullah Saleh Affash (21 March 1947There is a dispute as to Saleh's date of birth, some saying that it was on 21 March 1942. See: However, by Saleh's own confession (an interview recorded in a YouTube video), he was born in 1947.4 Decembe ...

. The Yemeni Navy issued a statement in October 2016 that any Saudi ships intruding in Yemen's territorial waters would be destroyed. The Yemeni Navy reportedly attacked two Saudi warships and the Emirati off the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

coast. Because of this, the Royal Saudi Air Force attacked the naval base at Al Hudaydah and destroyed two of Yemen's three Chinese-made fast missile craft. The Yemeni Navy, allegedly supported by Iranian advisors, repaired and smuggled Noor anti-ship cruise missiles and their launchers and coupled them with maritime radars and they were used to target coalition ships. The Noor missile or the original

C-802 The YJ-83 (; NATO reporting name: CSS-N-8 Saccade) is a People's Republic of China, Chinese subsonic anti-ship missile, anti-ship cruise missile. It is manufactured by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Third Academy. Develo ...

were named "Al Mandab-1", claiming it as an original Yemeni design and production. The Saudi tanker ship '' Boraida'' was targeted without reporting damage. In October 2016, with US Navy vessels patrolling the area in support to their Saudi allies, Yemeni forces fired about a dozen cruise missiles at them on three different days. In response, launched five Tomahawk cruise missiles and knocked out three Yemeni maritime radar sites. The Saudi Air Force also flew airstrikes and destroyed another Yemeni Radar station. Since then, lacking shore-based battery radars, the Yemeni Navy begun deploying speedboats and the remaining fast missile craft to approximately track Saudi coalition shipping.

Naval equipment

References