The United States has deployed F-22 fighters to the UAE after drone and missile attacks from Houthi rebels.

 

A US F-22 fighter in Lithuania. Reuters. 

The United States has deployed F-22 fighters to the UAE after drone and missile attacks from Houthi rebels in Yemen. Reuters. The Houthis have been launching ballistic missiles and drone attacks for some time now, though most of those attacks have failed. The F-22's are being used as a shore of force. The United States will also replenish UAE's stock of interceptor missiles. 

My Comment:

This deployment is mostly for show. The F-22's are mostly an anti-fighter jet. They have the ability to launch airstrikes, and have been used that way in the past, but aren't anywhere near as capable as the F-35's and older fighters like the F-15's and F-16's. Those are better bomb trucks than the F-22. 

I do think that this is a pretty good argument that nothing is going to happen in Ukraine, or at least nothing that will involve US forces. If there were real worries of World War III then these F-22's would not have been deployed to the UAE. Those fighters would be much better used at intercepting Russian fighters rather than doing nothing in the UAE. 

The F-22's can't do too much against the Houthi rebels and their attacks. They obviously can't intercept ballistic missiles. They might be useful against drones but it really depends on the size of those drones. Small drones would be too hard to engage but larger ones might be possible to intercept. I don't really know what kind of drones the Houthis are using but I know they are being provided by Iran. 

The war in Yemen doesn't seem to be calming down at all. Indeed, I seem to be writing about it a lot. The Houthis are doing a lot to bring the UAE back into the war. This is odd to me as the UAE had largely withdrawn from the conflict and left the fighting to the Saudis and their Yemeni allies. Bringing in the UAE doesn't help the Houthi's supposed cause. 

But the war in Yemen was never about the Houthis. It's a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and its allies and Iran. It's a war between Sunni and Shia Islam. That is why the UAE is being brought back into the war, Iran wants them to be weakened so they are not a threat to Iran. As long as that is true the war in Yemen will not end.