Direct proof of use
The mobile coastal launcher is documented in the 2023 Red Sea Crisis through official U.S. Central Command reports on Houthi anti-ship launch threats in Yemen. On 8 March 2024, CENTCOM said it conducted a self-defense strike against two Houthi truck-mounted anti-ship missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen; later that day, CENTCOM reported Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles fired from Yemen toward M/V Propel Fortune in the Gulf of Aden.
CENTCOM reported a second launcher-specific event on 11 June 2024, stating that U.S. forces destroyed two Houthi anti-ship cruise missile launchers in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen. CENTCOM assessed the launchers as an imminent threat to U.S. and coalition forces and to merchant vessels in the region.
Sources: CENTCOM March 8 Red Sea Update, CENTCOM June 11 Update
Timeline
On 3 February 2024, CENTCOM reported strikes against six Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea. The release identifies the missiles, not the launcher vehicles, but it establishes the shore-based launch cycle that later launcher-specific reports describe.
On 8 March 2024, the first direct truck-mounted anti-ship missile report in this record placed Houthi mobile anti-ship weapons in Houthi-controlled Yemen during the Red Sea campaign. On 11 June 2024, CENTCOM's anti-ship cruise missile launcher report added explicit launcher evidence for the same conflict.
Sources: CENTCOM February 3 ASCM Strike, CENTCOM March 8 Red Sea Update, CENTCOM June 11 Update
Narrative
The launcher role in this conflict was maritime interdiction and area denial from Houthi-controlled Yemen. CENTCOM's reports describe the systems as threats to U.S. Navy, coalition, and merchant vessels, tying the launchers to the wider campaign against shipping in the Red Sea region and Gulf of Aden.
The launcher evidence should be separated from the missiles themselves. RUSI describes Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles such as Al-Mandab-2 as truck-launched, while Combating Terrorism Center analysis describes Houthi coastal defense as built around land-based anti-shipping missiles and notes that Ansar Allah took control of Yemen's Red Sea coastal missile batteries in 2015 before integrating them into a salvage and modernization program.
Open sources do not identify the exact launcher model destroyed in the 8 March or 11 June CENTCOM reports. The public evidence supports Houthi fielding of mobile or land-based anti-ship launchers during the Red Sea Crisis, but it does not prove that every Houthi anti-ship missile fired in the campaign came from the same truck-mounted launcher arrangement.
Sources: CENTCOM March 8 Red Sea Update, CENTCOM June 11 Update, RUSI Red Sea Countermeasures, CTC Houthi War Effort
