Direct proof of use
Houthi-aligned forces were reported fielding the upgraded 9K115-2 Metis-M during the 2014 Yemen Civil War. On August 10, 2015, the Washington Institute reported that the Houthis already fielded Iranian-supplied Metis-M anti-tank systems alongside Kornet-E and RPG-29 weapons as the Saudi-led coalition and Hadi-aligned forces consolidated the recapture of Aden.
A second Washington Institute analysis published on August 11, 2015 tied those systems to the war's Saudi-Yemeni border fighting. It described Houthi long-range rocket artillery strikes and cross-border raids into Saudi Arabia from late May onward as using BM-21 and BM-27 rocket launchers and advanced Iranian-supplied anti-tank systems including the Metis-M, Kornet-E, and RPG-29.
Sources: Operation Golden Arrow in Aden, The Air Campaign
Timeline
The dated public record is concentrated in mid-2015. The Washington Institute placed more powerful Houthi cross-border raids from late May 2015 onward and identified Metis-M among the advanced Iranian-supplied anti-tank systems used in that pattern of fighting.
By August 10, 2015, after Operation Golden Arrow had retaken Aden, the same institute assessed that the Houthis already fielded Metis-M systems and that Iran could try to resupply the collapsing Houthi defense in the south or prepare a future defense of Sanaa. The available sources support fielding and use in Houthi-aligned service, but they do not give a missile count, unit designation, or a named single Metis-M firing incident.
Sources: The Air Campaign, Operation Golden Arrow in Aden
Narrative
In Yemen, the Metis-M appears in the record as a portable anti-armor weapon used by Houthi-aligned forces rather than as an inherited state missile stock. The Washington Institute framed it with other compact anti-armor systems that could threaten coalition armor, border posts, and mobile ground forces during the Saudi-led intervention phase of the war.
The system's general characteristics match that role. Rosoboronexport describes the Metis-M1 as a man-portable, wire-guided anti-tank missile system with tandem high-explosive anti-tank and thermobaric missile options and an 80 to 2,000 meter range. Those specifications support the anti-armor role description, while the Yemen-specific claims rest on the Washington Institute reporting.
Sources: Operation Golden Arrow in Aden, The Air Campaign, METIS-M1 Anti-Tank Guided Missile System
