Yemeni army unveils new domestically-built Badr-F ballistic missile

The Yemeni army has unveiled a domestically designed and manufactured Badr-F ballistic missile intended to rain shrapnel over a vast area upon explosion in mid air to ensure maximum lethality against designated targets, amid Saudi Arabia's atrocious aerial bombardment campaign against impoverished Yemen.

Spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on Tuesday that their new Badr-F ballistic missile would have a range of 160 kilometers, which shows a nearly 30-kilometer increase from their old version of the Badr-1P missile.

He added that the new missile would explode 20 meters above the center of the designated target and would scatter some 14,000 pieces of shrapnel in a circular area with a radius of 350 meters.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The Houthi fighters have been playing a significant role in aiding the Yemeni army in defending the country against the invading coalition since the onset of the bloody war, which according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, has so far claimed the lives of about 56,000 Yemenis.

The Yemeni army unveiled the Badr-F ballistic missile on the first anniversary of the martyrdom of Saleh Ali al-Samad, the former chairman of the Houthi movement.

Saree also showed videos, provided by the media bureau of Yemen’s Operations Command Center, of the new missile in action, adding that the Yemeni army had already used the missile to target camps belonging to Saudi-led Sudanese soldiers stationed on the Saudi-Yemeni border.

He also noted that Badr-F was designed primarily based on Russia’s Tochka tactical ballistic missile.

PressTV-Classified note reveals use of French weapons in Yemen

For instance, the document says French missile-guiding technology DAMOCLES might have been used.

The Yemeni army has designed and developed a number of missiles, including the high-precision Badr P-1 ballistic missile, during the past four years.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

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