US warships fire Tomahawk cruise missiles (Photo: Breakingdefense).
Early this morning, June 12, in the dark, from the air and at sea, the US and UK launched missiles and bombs at Houthi targets in Yemen. The US media pointed out the weapons and military equipment used by these two countries.
Tomahawk missile
The US Navy's Tomahawk (TLAM) is a low-flying cruise missile capable of carrying a conventional warhead weighing more than 450kg, flying 1,600km to attack targets deep inland in Yemen.
Launched from surface ships or submarines, the Tomahawk flies at subsonic speeds at extremely low altitudes and can bypass air defense systems using advanced guidance systems and can change targets or routes after launch, depending on needs, according to the US Navy.
The US first used the Tomahawk in combat in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, and they have since been used extensively in several other conflicts.
Guided missile submarine USS Florida
This is one of four nuclear-powered guided missile submarines (SSGN) of the US Navy.
The USS Florida was originally one of 18 Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, which carry nuclear warheads. The Navy later planned to scrap the four oldest submarines, the USS Ohio, USS Michigan, USS Florida and USS Georgia, but they eventually opted to upgrade and convert them to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles for conventional strikes on land targets.
The relatively large size and power of the SSGN submarine allows it to carry 154 Tomahawks, 50% more than US destroyers and nearly four times more than the country's newest attack submarines.
The submarine USS Florida moves through the Suez Canal in Egypt on April 7, 2023 (Photo: Reuters).
Carl Schuster, a former Navy captain and director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said in 2021: "SSGNs can deliver a lot of firepower very quickly... 154 Tomahawks deliver a lot of precision strikes. No US adversary can ignore this threat."
Instead of having to assemble and mobilize many destroyers at the same time to launch missiles in large numbers, just one Ohio-class submarine - as an independent, hard-to-detect unit - can launch a massive series of missiles from a secret location.
“SSGNs remain the most capable platform for firing conventional salvos,” Martin said. “The importance of large-scale strikes was demonstrated in March 2011, when the USS Florida fired nearly 100 Tomahawks at targets in Libya during Operation Odyssey Dawn. That strike marked the first time SSGNs were used in combat.”
The ship is equipped with a nuclear reactor that gives it "unlimited" underwater range, limited only by the need to replenish food supplies for the crew.
US Navy guided missile destroyer
The Pentagon said that in addition to the Florida submarine, US surface ships also launched Tomahawk missiles to attack Houthi forces.
The backbone of the US Navy's surface fleet is the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, with nearly 70 in service.
Displacing up to 9,700 tons, the Burke-class destroyer carries a wide range of weapons, both defensive and offensive.
The destroyers deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles using vertical launch systems (VLS), each ship has 90 to 96 VLS tubes, depending on when it was built.
The Pentagon has not said which specific destroyers were involved in the attack on Houthi forces in Yemen, but several warships have been in the Red Sea for the past two months to protect commercial vessels from drone and missile attacks by the armed group.
British Typhoon fighter jet
The Eurofighter Typhoon is currently the "backbone" of the Royal Air Force.
The multi-role fighter is jointly researched by the Eurofighter GmbH joint venture (including the German-Spanish EADS Group, the British BAE System and the Italian Aleni Aeronautica).
The Typhoon is a delta-wing fighter with canards, providing high agility, low drag and increased lift with dimensions: 15.96m long, 10.95m wingspan, 5.28m high and a wing area of 50m2, maximum take-off weight of up to 23.5 tons.
The Typhoon's maximum speed is around Mach 2 and its ceiling can reach up to 19km, its combat radius is 1,390km and it has a climb speed of 315m/s.
Eurofighter Typhoon fighter (Photo: Eurofighter).
The British Ministry of Defense said four of these aircraft took part in the attack on Houthi targets this morning, dropping Paveway IV guided bombs.
The Paveway IV bomb is 3.1m long, 0.27m in diameter, has a wingspan of 0.42m when the wings are spread, weighs 225kg, uses inertial guidance (with or without GPS assistance) and semi-active laser, the warhead is an upgraded Mk 82 conventional bomb weighing 225kg, the fuse can be detonated at an optional altitude, has a flight range of over 30km (depending on the bomb drop altitude), and a subsonic flight speed.
Bombs can be detonated in the air (at different altitudes), on impact, or after penetration.
The British Typhoons were supported by a Voyager aerial refuelling tanker, allowing the jet fighters to fly longer distances.
The UK Ministry of Defence did not say where the aircraft took off from, however, video posted by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps shows a Typhoon taking off at night from a land runway.
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