The United States is reportedly expanding its military support for Saudi Arabia as Riyadh intensifies its campaign against Yemen’s AnsarAllah, with more than 100 and potentially up to 200 U.S. military advisers now reportedly stationed in Saudi Arabia. According to reports citing U.S. officials, the personnel are providing intelligence, battlefield tracking and targeting assistance to Saudi forces. The development represents another significant example of Washington standing behind Riyadh as it confronts Yemen’s resistance.
The deployment comes amid a renewed escalation in the long-running Saudi aggression on Yemen. Saudi Arabia has sought American assistance as Yemen’s AnsarAllah has made major advances around the Red Sea and the strategically vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Reuters reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently asked U.S. President Donald Trump for direct military strikes against Yemen’s resistance. Trump reportedly declined to launch U.S. strikes, but agreed to provide intelligence and targeting support.
For Washington, this is not an entirely new relationship. Throughout the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, the United States has provided varying degrees of military, logistical and intelligence assistance to Riyadh. The latest reports indicate that Washington is once again becoming directly involved in supporting Saudi military operations, even while avoiding openly placing American forces at the centre of the fighting.
The consequences of this partnership are particularly significant given the humanitarian record of the Yemen conflict. U.S. support for Saudi operations has faced years of criticism over civilian casualties and the humanitarian consequences of the conflict and blockade. More recently, a Pentagon review found that U.S. strikes against Yemen’s AnsarAllah in 2025 killed 153 civilians and injured 243 others, while acknowledging that civilian harm was more likely than not.
The current deployment therefore raises a broader question about Washington’s role in the region. The United States presents its involvement primarily through the language of regional security, protection of maritime routes and opposition to Iranian influence. Yet from the perspective of Yemen and its supporters, American intelligence and targeting assistance amounts to material backing for Saudi military action against Yemen.
The timing is also significant because the strategic balance around the Red Sea has shifted sharply. Yemen’s resistance has recently captured strategically important positions near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, including Perim Island and the coastal town of Dhubab, while Saudi Arabia has faced growing pressure to respond. The developments have heightened concerns in Washington and Riyadh over control of one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.
Washington’s decision to provide intelligence and targeting assistance rather than immediately launch its own strikes also illustrates the way the United States can support a regional partner while attempting to limit the political and military costs of direct intervention. Saudi Arabia receives additional capabilities for its campaign, while Washington can maintain some distance from the consequences of the operations it helps facilitate.
For Yemen, however, the distinction between American forces carrying out attacks and American personnel enabling those attacks may offer little comfort. Intelligence, surveillance and targeting assistance can directly influence military operations, making U.S. involvement consequential even when American aircraft are not themselves carrying out every strike.
The latest development therefore reinforces a longstanding reality of the Saudi-Yemeni conflict: Riyadh has not been acting in isolation. Behind the Saudi military campaign stands a wider network of powerful partners, with the United States repeatedly providing political, military and intelligence support. As the conflict once again escalates, Washington’s renewed assistance to Riyadh risks being viewed not merely as a strategic partnership, but as continued American backing for the Saudi aggression on Yemen and the military pressure being placed on Yemen’s resistance.
