Tom Cooper - Hot Skies Over Yemen, Volume 2: Aerial Warfare Over Southern Arabian Peninsula, 1994-2017

VOLUME 2: AERIAL WARFARE OVER SOUTHERN ARABIAN PENINSULA, 1994-2017

Tom Cooper

1Principal combat locations from the six Saada Wars

2The area controlled by the Houthi/Saleh coalition

3Yemen as of June-August 2015

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Published by Helion & Company 2018

Designed and typeset by Mach 3 Solutions Ltd ( www.mach3solutions.co.uk )

Cover designed by Paul Hewitt, Battlefield Design ( www.battlefleld-design.co.uk )

Text Tom Cooper 2018

Images as individually credited

Colour profiles Tom Cooper 2018

Maps Tom Cooper 2018

ISBN 978-1-911628-18-7

eISBN 978-1-913118-36-5

Mobi ISBN 978-1-913118-36-5

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A pair of F-5Es of the Yemen Air Force, seen underway north of Sanaa, in the early 2000s. ( Tom Cooper)

In order to simplify the use of this book, all names, locations and geographic designations are as provided in The Times World Atlas, or other traditionally accepted major sources of reference, as of the time of the events described. Arabic names are romanised and transcripted rather than transliterated. For example: the definite article al-before words starting with sun letters is given as pronounced instead of simply as al- (which is the usual practice for non-Arabic speakers in most English-language literature and media). For reasons of simplicity, genuine designations for Soviet/ Russian-made weapons used in this book are mentioned once, and then their ASCC (or NATO) codes are used instead.

I would like to express my special thanks to a number of military-aviation researchers, analysts, and enthusiasts that helped me collect thousands of bits and pieces of the giant puzzle that eventually resulted in this book. Foremost amongst them are a number of contacts in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and USA, that contributed a wealth of precious information about latest military-related developments on condition of anonymity. David Nicolle, from Great Britain, helped introduce me to the world of research about Arab military history, and is always supportive and encouraging of my work. His immense knowledge and in-depth understanding of local affairs are a lasting inspiration. I can never thank enough to Pit Weinert from Germany, whose research not only resulted in the contribution of his exclusive photographic collection, but also a number of largely unknown, yet precious articles published in the Yemeni press over time. Thanks to Stefan Knipschield from Germany, Mohammed Khalid from Saudi Arabia greatly enhanced the looks of this book by providing an amazing collection of exclusive photographs of aircraft of the Saudi-led coalition involved in the ongoing combat operations over Yemen, either taken by Fahd Rihan, or by Ahmed Hader, or officially released by the Ministry of Defence of Saudi Arabia. Albert Grandolini from France greatly encouraged this project and supported it with all his powers, his immense knowledge, and his photographic collection. Ali Tobchi from Iraq helped with additional articles and endless patience while translating materials available in the Arabic language only. Dmitry Zubkov helped with rare details sourced from specialised Russian literature, while Jeroen Nijmeijer and Menno van der Wal from The Netherlands provided precious details about unit designations and aircraft of Yemeni air forces. Last, but not least, I owe to express my gratitude to a number of visitors of the ACIG.info forum that contributed additional information over the years. This book would be literally impossible to prepare without help from all of them.