British destroyer shoots down suspected attack drone in Red Sea
A Royal Navy warship shot down a hostile drone attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, in the service’s first aerial engagement for more than three decades.
HMS Diamond took down a drone attempting to disrupt one of the world’s busiest trade routes on Friday night, amid rising concern about attacks from Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Type-45 destroyer is operating with the US and French navies in the Middle East, where Western allies are countering attacks by the Iranian-backed rebels that have been launched in sympathy with Hamas.
Joe Biden, the US president, is reportedly considering launching a direct assault on Houthi targets in Yemen, following a bombardment of drone attacks on the Red Sea shipping route and Israeli towns.
The US and UK collaborated to thwart the attack on a commercial ship, which is not believed to be British, and shot down 15 drones in total, officials said.
Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, warned that the attacks “represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security in the Red Sea”, which sees the passage of around 10 per cent of international trade each year.
Shipping companies including Maersk, the Danish cargo giant, have begun to cancel routes through the area, after several ships were targeted with missiles and another was fired on by gunmen in a speedboat.
Houthi rebels in Yemen are targeting Western shipping in protest of Israeli attacks on Hamas in Gaza. Commercial traffic to the port of Eilat in southern Israel has almost completely stopped in the wake of the strikes.
The attacks have also raised fears that Christmas orders to the UK from China will be delayed. Weekly oil prices increased for the first time in two months on Friday, while shipping companies have more than quadruple their “war premiums”.
HMS Diamond’s counter-attack is the first time the Royal Navy has neutralised an airborne target in 32 years, and the first time it has used the destroyer’s Sea Viper missile system in live combat.
The last time a Royal Navy ship engaged an aerial target was during the first Gulf War in 1991, when HMS Gloucester destroyed an Iraqi Silkworm missile bound for a US warship.
The US has proposed an international naval coalition in the region, which has seen the deployment of American, British and French warships, including HMS Diamond, which deployed from Portsmouth on Nov 22.
Security in the Red Sea area is the responsibility of a 39-nation coalition, known as Combined Task Force 153, and commanded by the vice-admiral of the US Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain.
A defence source said the Aster missile fired on Friday night was the first to be deployed by the UK as a result of “hostile enemy action”.
‘Unacceptable’
The news came after the Houthis launched a drone attack on Eilat, more than than 1,000 miles from Yemen on Friday, vowing to “continue to attack Israel until its aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops”. The drones were shot down by Egyptian and US forces.
The Israeli Defense Forces have reported more than 70 drone and ballistic missile attacks from Yemen and US officials have warned the Houthis that attacks on Israel and Red Sea trade routes are “unacceptable”.
On Friday, Ali al-Qahoum, a senior Houthi official, responded that the group “will not abandon the Palestinian cause, regardless of any US, Israeli, or Western threats”.
Mr Biden is reportedly considering launching direct attacks on Houthi targets in an attempt to dissuade the rebels from disrupting shipping routes and striking Israel directly.
Retired Marine Corps Gen Kenneth F McKenzie Jr, who commanded US Central Command from 2019 to 2022, said something needed to be done to “slow those attacks”.
“You can do it by demonstrating to the Houthis that it’s not in their best interest to continue these attacks, and you do that by attacking their missile launchers, their radar sites, their intelligence gathering platforms,” he said.
“That requires offensive action against the Houthis in Yemen. We have clearly not chosen to do that yet. We may yet make a decision to do that.”
