UAE air defences intercepted a UAE ballistic missile alert on 18 August, when the Ministry of Defence confirmed that two missiles launched from Iran were detected and dealt with before the emergency notification was lifted roughly 10 minutes after it was issued.
The UAE Ministry of Defence, via the Emirates News Agency, said air defence forces detected two ballistic missiles fired from Iran toward the country. The first fell outside UAE territorial waters; the second fell within them. Authorities confirmed the situation was safe shortly after 7pm.
The alert was issued at 6.52pm on 18 August, the first such warning in 37 days. The previous emergency notification came on 12 July, when the Ministry of Defence told residents that sounds heard across the country were the result of ongoing interception operations. On that occasion, the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA) later confirmed the detected threats had remained outside the country’s borders.
UAE ballistic missile alert comes one day after MoU lapses
The 18 August incident occurred the day after a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran expired. The agreement had set up a 60-day framework focused on Iran’s nuclear programme, but Al Jazeera reported on 16 August that a dispute over the Strait of Hormuz had thrown talks off course, and both sides had accused the other of violating the deal for weeks before it lapsed.
The conflict itself began on 28 February, when the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran. The 18 August incident falls just under two weeks before the six-month mark of that war.
ADNOC tanker attacks and the vessel-count conflict
The missile alert followed a period of sustained pressure on UAE-linked energy assets. On 14 August, the UAE accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of striking two ADNOC vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, condemning the attacks as ‘piracy’ and a threat to global energy security; no injuries were reported in those strikes, according to Al Jazeera. ADNOC described it as the third attack on its tankers in less than a week.
The cumulative toll on ADNOC’s fleet has been reported differently by different sources. In a statement on 7 August, ADNOC said 18 of its vessels had been attacked since the war began, with one crew member killed and 20 others injured. Al Jazeera cited an ADNOC figure of 15 vessels attacked as of 14 August, a lower count that may reflect a different methodology or an earlier company statement. The 18-vessel figure is the most recent cited from an ADNOC statement in the available record.
The deadliest single incident came on 13 July, when two very large crude carriers, Al Bahyah and Mombasa B, were struck by Iranian cruise missiles while transiting the southern lane of the Strait of Hormuz in Omani territorial waters. Reuters reported both vessels sustained significant damage with fires breaking out on board. Eight crew members were wounded in that strike, four of them seriously; six were Indian nationals and two were Ukrainian nationals. The crew member who was killed was aboard the Mombasa B. Three crew members of Al Bahyah were reported missing after the vessel was struck off Musandam.
Authorities have previously said that precautionary alerts can be issued even when the probability of impact is low, and that relevant agencies continue to monitor the situation through official channels. The next development to watch is whether the US and Iran resume any formal dialogue channel following the lapse of the MoU on 17 August.
