News
Red Sea Attacks Put Drone Boats Back Beside Anti-Ship Missiles
The July 2025 attacks on Magic Seas and Eternity C showed Houthi explosive unmanned surface vessels operating alongside missiles, RPGs, small arms, and small craft in the Red Sea, renewing focus on the anti-ship weapons threatening merchant traffic off Yemen.
2023 Red Sea Crisis
Timeline
Key Events
Strinda hit by anti-ship cruise missile
CENTCOM assessed that M/T Strinda was attacked near Bab el-Mandeb by an anti-ship cruise missile launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.
Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile attacks continue
CENTCOM reported multiple anti-ship ballistic missile attacks launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Sources: CENTCOM Multiple Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Attacks
Magic Seas struck by USVs and a missile
JMIC reported that Magic Seas was attacked by small craft including multiple USVs, with two USVs and one missile striking the vessel before the crew abandoned ship.
Sources: JMIC Magic Seas Information Note 117
Eternity C sinks after drone-boat attack
AP reported that Eternity C sank after an attack involving RPGs, small arms, drones, and two bomb-carrying drone boats, with at least three crew members killed.
Sources: AP: Eternity C sinks in the Red Sea
Magic Seas shows the mixed attack package
The July 6, 2025 attack on M/V Magic Seas put explosive unmanned surface vessels back at the center of the Red Sea shipping threat. The Joint Maritime Information Center reported that the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier was attacked by up to eight small craft, including multiple USVs, small arms, and RPGs. JMIC said the vessel was struck by two USVs and one missile before the crew abandoned ship because of damage, fire, and flooding.
Associated Press reporting on the follow-on Red Sea attacks described the Magic Seas assault in the same broad weapon mix: drones, missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, and small-arms fire. For the catalog, the clean system-level link is the Houthi explosive USV family, because the public incident note directly identifies multiple USVs and two impacts, while the missile fired at Magic Seas was not publicly tied to a specific model.
Sources: JMIC Magic Seas Information Note 117, AP: Houthis attack another ship in the Red Sea
Eternity C turns the pattern lethal
The next day, M/V Eternity C was attacked in the same threat area. JMIC's initial incident note said multiple small craft fired RPGs at the ship, damaging the aft section, injuring crew members, and causing loss of propulsion and severe engine-room damage.
AP later reported, citing the European Union naval mission, that the attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and small arms before two drones and two bomb-carrying drone boats struck the vessel. Eternity C sank on July 9, and the EU force said only six of 25 people aboard had been rescued at that stage, with at least three killed.
Sources: JMIC Eternity C Information Note 118, AP: Eternity C sinks in the Red Sea
Why the missile context still matters
The July 2025 ship attacks were not isolated drone-boat events. They sat inside a Red Sea campaign in which Houthi forces had already used anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles against commercial and naval targets. CENTCOM assessed that M/T Strinda was hit near Bab el-Mandeb by an anti-ship cruise missile launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen in December 2023, and later reported anti-ship ballistic missile attacks from Yemen into the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in January 2024.
That history is why this article links both the explosive USV entry and the broad anti-ship missile catalog entries. The sources support a class-level pattern: drone boats can damage or disable a ship at close range, while missiles extend the threat envelope and complicate escort planning. They do not support assigning every July 2025 missile report to a named Houthi missile type.
Sources: CENTCOM Strinda Missile Attack Statement, CENTCOM Multiple Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile Attacks, JMIC Magic Seas Information Note 117
A renewed maritime-risk signal
The International Maritime Organization said the Magic Seas and Eternity C incidents marked renewed Red Sea attacks after several months of calm, and cited at least 69 attacks on international shipping between November 2023 and October 2024. IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez called the renewed attacks a violation of international law and freedom of navigation.
On July 6, 2026, AP reported a separate cargo-ship attack off Hodeida involving a skiff that opened fire before returning to a larger vessel, with no immediate claim of responsibility and the crew reported safe. That report does not identify naval drones or missiles, but it underlines that the Red Sea threat environment remains unsettled after the 2025 drone-boat and missile attacks.
Sources: IMO Renewed Red Sea Attacks Statement, AP: Cargo ship reports being under attack off Yemen