Seven drones launched by Iranian-backed Houthi fighters in the Red Sea have been shot down by a British warship which was “doing exactly the job” it was deployed for.
The drones were heading towards HMS Diamond, which has been deployed by the UK to protect shipping in the region.
HMS Diamond is a Daring-Class Type 45 air defence destroyer which joined the fleet in 2011.
Last night, it was doing exactly the job for which it was designed – bringing down airborne threats to other shipping.
These images show the best way a Type 45 does that, by launching one of its Sea Viper missiles.
There is nothing much to see on a Type 45 before it goes into action.
It’s a boxy-looking ship and apart from the standard 4.5in naval gun near the bow and a Wildcar helicopter on the stern, the rest of it looks to be a series of containers.
But when Sea Viper is fired, it seems to explode out of the deck, vertically upwards, before it sets course towards whatever target it’s taking on.
And it doesn’t miss.
That’s why Sea Viper is also pretty expensive.
Pic: MOD
Pic: MOD
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It’s interesting to note in these pictures that the crew on the bridge of HMS Diamond are all wearing their flash suits.
They were facing a potential incoming attack and flash suits go back a very long way to the days when the navy realised in the First World War how vulnerable the crew of a ship could be to flash fires caused by explosions, or any accidents within the gun turrets.
In the final image, they are even wearing them in the combat information centre – the CIC – the protected ‘citadel’ where the ship’s offensive systems are organised and controlled, and which exists in an eerie fluorescent glow.
It’s a very quiet place on a fighting ship.
Life and death judgements are made in this small room at its centre, and they are made by people speaking very quietly in a matter-of-fact sort of way.
