On board HMS Diamond as it faces Houthi attacks
By Jonathan Beale
From the first shout of “fireball” the crew of HMS Diamond have just two minutes to react. In that time they have to work out whether the missile, travelling at more than three times the speed of sound, poses a direct threat to their ship and nearby merchant vessels.
We were the first media on board HMS Diamond since she joined the US-led operation to protect merchant shipping in the Red Sea. We witnessed the threat first-hand as she prepared to run the gauntlet of Houthi drones and missiles being fired from Yemen.
The captain of HMS Diamond says the Houthis are now using more advanced and more lethal weapons.
Cdr Pete Evans says when the ship first entered the Red Sea in December, one-way attack drones, or UAVs, were the main threat. But he says the Houthis have “moved much more into conventional and ballistic missiles which are harder to defend against and cause much more damage”.
We began our voyage as the crew made the final checks to the ship’s weapons systems.
Its main Sea Viper missiles were already primed, hidden in a silo at the front of the ship – with scorch marks still visible from previous launches. Each missile costs more than £1m ($1.3m). They are the ship’s main line of defence. But Diamond also has Phalanx machine guns and 30mm cannons on each side of the ship – close-in weapons.
The Phalanx can fire more than 3,000 rounds a minute. For the very first time the crew have also used the 30mm cannon to successfully shoot down a drone.
