The Iran backed Houthi militia in Yemen successfully hit a Saudi Boeing F-15 fighter jet flying over the northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada, with a improvised Missile on Wednesday.
A Saudi official press release confirmed the incident, but said the aircraft was able to safely return to base.
It is not clear which varaint of F-15 was involved in the incident. Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) operates both the older F-15S and the new F-15SA variant of the multi-role twin engined U.S made fighter.
Houthi backed media released a footage showing a surface launched R-27 air to air missile hitting a aircraft.
The rebels have successfully modified the R-27 air to air missile for surface to air missile (SAM) role.
Earlier, the Saudi led coalition has acknowledged existence of improvised R-27T (AA-10B Alamo) infrared heat seeking missiles in possession of Houthi rebels, mounted on trucks.
These Russian origin missiles were reportedly pre-war Yemeni Air Force MiG-29 armaments captured by the rebels.
The incident marks, the second involving a RSAF F-15 this year after losing one to a R-27 over the Yemen capital Sana on January 8.#Yemen #Houthi media released footage of claimed attack on #SaudiArabia F-15 indicating improvised ground launch of R-27 air-to-air missile pic.twitter.com/SPln1hGsk9— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) March 22, 2018
The 3 year old military campaign to drive out the Houthi rebels from Yemen is proving to be very costly for the Saudi-UAE led coalition forces.
The alliance has lost several combat jets, helicopters and soldiers in the campaign.
