How Yemen’s Sayyad missile bolsters its naval deterrence

In a statement on Monday, the Yemeni Navy confirmed the entry of Sayyad into active service.

It said the Sayyad missile has a range of up to 800 kilometers, advanced capabilities for hitting moving targets with high accuracy, and the ability to evade enemy radar systems.

The new missile, it stated, can be launched from any point within Yemeni territory to target enemy naval vessels in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and all the way to the Indian Ocean.

The long reach of the missile enhances the Yemeni military’s maritime deterrence capabilities in the face of American, British, and Israeli hostile activities in the region.

Prior to this test, the Sayyad cruise missile was first displayed at an impressive military parade in September 2023 at Al-Sabeen Square in the capital city of Sana’a.

At the time, it was said that the cruise missile uses a solid fuel booster, has a medium range, and is designed to strike both stationary and moving sea targets with high destructive capability.

What are the Sayyad missile’s specifications?

The Sayyad cruise missile is the new addition to Yemen’s naval arsenal, announced as part of their ongoing military campaign against the Israeli regime and the enemy fleet in the Red Sea. 

Yemeni military has accelerated its weapons development since 2015. The Sayyad (Arabic for “hunter” or “fisherman”) missile represents an evolution of the country’s cruise missile capabilities.

In 2023, Yemeni military spokespersons and media reports referred to a range of approximately 800–1,000 kilometers, enough to cover 80 percent of the Red Sea, the entire Gulf of Aden, and parts of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Although this range does not cover the occupied Palestinian territories, it is sufficient for the enemy fleet, most often operating hundreds of kilometers from Yemen.

The missile is equipped with satellite navigation and possibly inertial guidance, but the technical navigation details and where this technology comes from are unknown.

This allows precision strikes on both land and sea targets, a capability demonstrated during recent Red Sea strikes on Israeli-linked commercial shipping.

The cruise missile has a length of 6.8 meters and a diameter of 0.5 m, and its payload is estimated at 200–300 kilograms of conventional explosives, sufficient for damaging military installations, naval or merchant vessels.

Sayyad is launched from mobile ground-based launchers, similar to other Yemeni cruise missiles, though sea-launched variants are under development, as hinted by official statements this summer.

Launching it from sea platforms would also imply an increase in operational range relative to Yemeni soil, covering the entire Red Sea, more of the Indian Ocean, and parts of the Mediterranean Sea.

The cruise missile utilizes a solid-fuel rocket booster and features a turbojet mounted above the frame, with a subsonic cruising speed estimated at Mach 0.7–0.9, consistent with other similar cruise missiles.

It is designed to fly at very low altitudes, just above the sea surface (sea-skimming), making it harder to detect by radar systems. This low altitude also reduces the time available for interception.

Among Iranian cruise missiles, the models most similar to the Yemeni Sayyad are the Qader-380 (or Qadr-380) anti-ship cruise missile and the Paveh surface-to-surface cruise missile.

Very similar in design, Qader-380 boasts a range exceeding 1,000 km, is resistant to electronic jamming, and can be launched by a single operator within five minutes.

It uses a truck-mounted ramp launch system, which deploys the missile with fully extended wings rather than the traditional folded-wing, tube-launched configuration seen on numerous other Iranian naval missiles.

How does Sayyad strengthen the Yemeni arsenal?

Yemen’s cruise missile program emerged during the Saudi-imposed war, driven by the Ansarullah Resistance movement’s desire for modernization and self-sufficiency. Prior to the imposed war, Yemen’s military lacked advanced cruise capabilities, relying only on Soviet-era systems.

Initial cruise missile attacks (2015–2018) targeted enemy border posts with limited success due to rudimentary guidance. However, the introduction of the Quds-1 cruise missile marked a turning point in Yemeni military capabilities.

The first Yemeni cruise missile was the Quds-1, introduced into service in 2017. With a range of 700–1,000 kilometers, it has been used to strike enemy oil facilities and Red Sea shipping vessels.

The subsonic missile carries a 150–200 kg warhead and relies on GPS or inertial guidance systems for targeting.

The Sammad cruise missile series, which includes the Sammad-2 and Sammad-3 variants introduced between 2018 and 2019, has a range of 300-600 kilometers and was used in early strikes against enemy military bases and installations. These missiles feature a relatively simple design.

Underground factories in Saada and Sana’a manufacture these missiles, with an estimated annual production of dozens, and as of 2025, Yemen is believed to possess 100–150 cruise missiles.

The Sayyad naval cruise missile represents a significant addition to Yemen’s existing arsenal of cruise, anti-ship and ballistic missiles, and drones. Compared to existing cruise missiles, Sayyad is low-flying and has a longer range.

Naval cruise missiles offer greater range, precision, and payload capacity than most kamikaze drones while being harder to intercept than ballistic missiles due to their low-altitude, terrain-hugging flight profiles.

While kamikaze drones are also low-flying and long-range, they most often carry warheads weighing several dozen kilograms and are not capable of causing catastrophic damage, while the powerful Sayyad warhead can severely damage or even sink an enemy ship.

The conventional anti-ship missiles in the Yemeni arsenal also have powerful warheads; however, their range is three to five times shorter than the Sayyad cruise missile.

Source: PressTV

MNA/