The original was taken from a colleague of imp_navigator in the first combat defeat of a ship at sea by an anti-ship ballistic missile
In recent weeks, the armed forces of the Ansar Allah (Houthi) government in Yemen, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, have launched a virtually open hunt, first against merchant ships associated with Israel, and then all ships that can go to Israeli ports. If the vessels refuse to obey the warnings and do not change their course, they can be captured like the Galaxy Leader vessel, or they are attacked with drones and anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles.
On December 15, at least two container ships were shot down in the Red Sea, on board of which a fire started after that. At least one of them, the MSC Palatium III, was hit by an anti-ship ballistic missile, according to information from the US military. They write that the ship belongs to the Swiss company MSC, which continued to cooperate with Israel even after the outbreak of the current war. The most interesting thing here is that, as I understand it, the Houthis were the first in the world to hit a ballistic missile into a ship going to sea in real conditions, even if it was not their first such attempt these days . That is, the Yemenis have missiles, of course, of Iranian design, but it is clear that Iran could previously launch them only during tests and exercises.
The footage shows the trace of a missile launched today, filmed in the area of Yemen's Taiz. They write that the rocket was just flying towards the Red Sea
As for which anti-ship ballistic missile hit the ship, it is difficult for me to say, since Iran has created anti-ship variants with optoelectronic homing heads for several of its guided missiles and ballistic missiles, at least three of which were demonstrated by the Houthis in Yemen.
The first photo appears to be a variant of the Iranian Fajr-4CL guided missiles or Fath-360 family missiles with an optoelectronic homing head, which in Yemen were called Faleq.
In the second photo, Iranian Khalij Fars anti-ship ballistic missiles (a variant of the Fateh-110 tactical missile with a range of 300 km), which were named Aasif in Yemen.
In the third photo, the anti-ship version of Iran's Zoheir (Raad-500) shorter-range ballistic missiles with a range of up to 500 km, which were given the name Tankil in Yemen.
After today's attacks, the Danish shipping and logistics corporation AP Moller-Maersk and the German container operator Hapag-Lloyd decided to suspend container traffic on the Red Sea .
P.S. The statement of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces on this issue:
P.P.S. Following AP Moller-Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, two more major shipping companies announced the suspension of the passage of ships through the Red Sea - the French CMA CGM and the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).
