HMS Dauntless completes air defence exercise during Carrier Strike Group 25 deployment

A Daring-class Type 45 destroyer has concluded an air defence exercise (ADEX) on her deployment on Carrier Strike Group 25 (CSG25).

HMS Dauntless, which can hit speeds of close to 30 knots, showed that she can help defend the wider task group using her air defences. 

It comes after the CSG25, also widely known as Operation Highmast, reached the Mediterranean on its journey down to Australia.

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• HMS Dauntless proves she's a sharpshooter as she downs swarm of drones

HMS Dauntless posted on X: "We have just finished demonstrating how we can protect the task group as an air defender during an air defence exercise (ADEX), and our fighter controllers arranged a flypast by an F-35."

An F-35B Lightning fighter jet is seen soaring past the vessel with bright blue skies and smooth seas behind in the video released with the post.

HMS Dauntless

The vessel is used for anti-aircraft and anti-missile warfare.

She has a "clean" exterior due to her equipment and life rafts being hidden behind panels.

The Type 45 destroyer, which weighs 7,350 tonnes, has a flight deck and hangar, meaning it can help operate a single Merlin helicopter.  

HMS Dauntless also has a significant armoury on board, including the Sea Viper. The system was created to find and obliterate several high-level air threats, like cruise missiles, fighter jets and uncrewed drones.

It can fire eight missiles in less than 10 seconds, and the ordnances can be shot at adversaries from more than 70 miles away.

Alongside the Sea Viper anti-air missile system, she has two Phalanx 20mm close-in weapons systems, BAE Systems 4.5-inch Mark 8 Mode 1, two 30mm DSM Mark 2s, two 7.62mm miniguns and up to six FN MAG general-purpose machine guns.

She annihilated a drone swarm in a live-fire exercise off the Welsh coast last month before joining CSG25.

"The speed and skill shown by the crew of HMS Dauntless in defending the ship against a complex and sustained series of drone attacks was incredibly impressive," said Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard, who saw the exercise firsthand.

The vessel was tasked with stopping hundreds of Banshee, Hammerhead and virtual drone attacks in a simulation of real-life threats during a five-day period.