Why Saudi Arabia has struggled to defend itself against the Houthis' recent attacks

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s most expensive and sophisticated arsenals, filled with American warplanes, missile defenses and other cutting-edge technology.

But in recent days it has appeared helpless in the face of barrages of missiles and drones fired by the Houthi rebel group from neighboring Yemen . The attacks have struck Saudi airports , killed at least 14 people and forced schoolchildren and businesspeople to stay indoors and work from home.

The Iran-backed Houthis, once seen as little more than a ragtag militia, have grown into a formidable fighting force . They have inflicted damage on the region’s top oil producer, threatened critical supply routes in the Red Sea and now risk reigniting a full-scale war on the Arabian Peninsula that displaced millions and killed tens of thousands.

The Houthis are attacking Saudi Arabia because it supports government forces in Yemen the rebels seek to overthrow. As Saudi Arabia investigates how its air defenses failed to stop the Houthis' attacks, it must also consider how to respond and what the rebels might do next.

Here’s what we know and don’t know about the Saudi and Houthi conflict:

Saudi Arabia is the world’s top purchaser of American weapons, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. It says the Saudis received 12% of all U.S. arms exports from 2021-2025.

Over the years, the Saudis have purchased American F-15 warplanes, Patriot air defense systems, as well as advanced radars and offensive missile systems, according to the think tank, which tracks global arms transfers.

Saudi Arabia's annual budget for 2026 listed $83 billion for military expenditures. Earlier this year, it struck a $9 billion deal with Washington for 730 Patriot missiles .

The Houthis have been able to exploit Saudi Arabia's large size.

Vulnerable energy, civilian and military assets are scattered across the country's sparsely populated territory roughly three times the size of Texas. Its border with Yemen stretches more than 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) through rugged desert areas.

“Expecting a country the size of Saudi Arabia to intercept every missile is simply unrealistic. No defense can guarantee complete protection,” Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst, said in a post online Monday.

At the same time, regional officials say that Saudi Arabia is running low on interceptors and has reached out to allies for help.

Saudi Arabia recently struck a joint defense pact with Pakistan and Turkey. But so far, the two countries appear to be largely staying on the sidelines or limiting their support.

President Donald Trump said this week he is evaluating whether the U.S. should join Saudi strikes on the Houthis. But he has not yet announced a decision.

Like their patron Iran, the Houthis have deployed asymmetric warfare for the 21st century by capitalizing on their strengths — primarily drones and missiles. For the Houthis, success on the battlefield doesn’t require toppling Saudi Arabia; disrupting the Saudi economy and sowing fear within its society may be enough to give the Houthis leverage in any possible negotiations to end the fighting.

The Houthis have a large arsenal capable of striking targets well over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away. Some warheads change direction during flight and pose an extra challenge to air defenses.

The group has fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel since its war in Gaza erupted in October 2023. While most were intercepted, a handful managed to land, in one case killing an Israeli man. Another strike hit an Israeli airport last year.

Andreas Krieg, a professor at King’s College London, said this experience in challenging Israel’s cutting-edge air defenses has given the Houthis confidence and expertise as they now strike Saudi Arabia.

“They’ve learned how to over-saturate the radars,” he said.

The Houthis, working with allied militias in Iraq, have also targeted Saudi oil installations, including a vital pipeline used to export oil through the Red Sea while movement through the Strait of Hormuz is limited. The Houthis have also seized territory in Yemen near the Bab el-Mandeb, a key Red Sea waterway, putting additional pressure on Saudi oil exports.

Michael Ratney, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, says the kingdom assumed the Houthis wouldn’t strike civilian targets like airports. Doing so marked “a paradigm shift,” he said.

Ratney, now an adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Saudis now find themselves in a position where they have to respond while also trying to prevent the fighting from spinning out of control.

“They can’t not strike back — they were attacked in a very brutal way by their archenemies,” he said. “They need to exert military pressure on the Houthis and then find a way to kind of deescalate.”

Rather than sending troops into Yemen, the Saudis will likely launch airstrikes against the Houthis and ramp up support of nationalist forces, several analysts said.

“It will be surrogate warfare,” Krieg said.

While the Houthis don't have the firepower of Saudi Arabia, they have grown into a fearsome force controlling roughly one-third of Yemen thanks to help from Iran.

The United Nations estimates that the Houthis by 2024 had recruited up to 350,000 fighters. That's up from just 30,000 in 2015, when Saudi Arabia intervened in the internationally recognized Yemeni government's civil war against the Houthis and imposed a naval blockade.

Ratney says the Houthis now have a “symbiotic relationship” with Iran and should not be seen as an Iranian puppet.

The strikes on Saudi airports and economic assets symbolize a sharing of lessons in asymmetric warfare between the Houthis and the Iranians: how to not just puncture expensive air defenses, but also damage vulnerable energy installations and threaten global maritime routes.

“Over the course of the past few years, the Iranians have been innovating and sharing that with the Houthis and it’s gone both ways. The Houthis have been innovating, and sharing it with the Iranians,” Ratney said. “It’s no coincidence that they’ve ended up with a similar approach.”

Their recent military successes have made the Houthis feel “untouchable,” said Farea Al-Muslimi, a fellow at Chatham House focused on Yemen.

“It’s very hard to convince a man he’s going on the wrong side if he just moved forward and he has a gun in his hand,” he said. But the Houthis are now likely to suffer a brutal Saudi counterattack, he said.

Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Sam Metz in Jerusalem, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed reporting.