Mysterious air base built on volcanic island off Yemen

Runway allows whoever controls it to easily launch airstrikes into mainland Yemen and provides base for operations in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and East Africa

Satellite photograph shows Mayun Island airbase (Planet Labs Inc via AP)

A mysterious air base has been built on a volcanic island off Yemen that could allow whoever controls it to project power in one of the world’s most crucial maritime checkpoints for both energy shipments and commercial cargo.

While no country has claimed the Mayun Island air base in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 5.6km (3.5 mile)-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates.

Military officials in Yemen's internationally recognised government have said the Emiratis are behind this latest effort as well, even though the UAE announced in 2019 it was withdrawing its troops from a Saudi-led military campaign battling Yemen's Houthi rebels, the Associated Press reported.

The military officials said recent tension between the UAE and Yemen’s president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, came in part from an Emirati demand for his government to sign a 20-year lease agreement for Mayun. Emirati officials have not acknowledged any disagreement.

"This does seem to be a longer-term strategic aim to establish a relatively permanent presence," Jeremy Binnie, the Mideast editor at the open-source intelligence company Janes who has followed construction on Mayun for years, told the Associated Press. It is "possibly not just about the Yemen war and you've got to see the shipping situation as fairly key there."

The runway on Mayun Island allows whoever controls it to easily launch airstrikes into mainland Yemen, which has been wrecked by years of civil war. It also provides a base for any operations into the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and nearby East Africa.

Satellite images from Planet Labs Inc showed heavy construction vehicles building a 1.85km (6,070-foot) runway on the island on 11 April. By 18 May, the work appeared complete, with three hangars constructed on a tarmac just south of the runway.

Such a runway can accommodate attack, surveillance and transport aircraft, while an earlier effort which began toward the end of 2016 and was later abandoned saw workers try to build an even-larger runway over 3km (9,800ft) long, which would allow for the heaviest bombers.

The initial, failed construction project came after Emirati and allied forces retook the island from Iranian-backed Houthi militants in 2015. By late 2016, satellite images showed construction underway there.

Construction initially stopped in 2017, likely when engineers realised they could not dig through a portion of the volcanic island's craggy features to incorporate the site of the island's old runway.

The building restarted in earnest on the new runway site around 22 February, satellite photos show, several weeks after the US president, Joe Biden, announced he would end US support for the Saudi-led offensive against the Houthis.

The apparent decision by the Emiratis to resume building the air base comes after the UAE dismantled parts of a military base it ran in the East African nation of Eritrea as a staging ground for its Yemen campaign.

Mayun, also known as Perim Island, sits some 3.5km (two miles) off the southwestern edge of Yemen. World powers have recognised the island's strategic location for hundreds of years, especially with the opening of the Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

Britain kept the island up until its departure from Yemen in 1967. The Soviet Union, allied with South Yemen's Marxist government, upgraded Mayun's naval facilities but used them "only infrequently," according a 1981 CIA analysis.

The base still may interest American forces, however, as US troops operated from Yemen's al-Anad Air Base running a campaign of drone strikes targeting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula until the Houthi advance forced them to withdraw in 2015. The Defense Department later acknowledged on-the-ground American troops supported the Saudi-led coalition around Mukalla in 2016. Special forces raids and drones also have targeted the country.

Additional reporting by Associated Press