HMS Diamond: Capabilities of the Type 45 destroyer thwarting Red Sea attacks
HMS Diamond, the Royal Navy's "jewel in the naval crown", is a versatile and capable platform with the ability to carry out a wide range of war-fighting and constabulary duties.
The highly capable Type 45 air defence destroyer is one of the most advanced warships in the world.
HMS Diamond's primary role is to provide her fellow ships with air defence using the Sea Viper anti-air missile system, seen recently in action repelling attacks in the Red Sea.
Capabilities
Sea Viper
The Sea Viper missile system is one of the world's most advanced and powerful air defence weapons, especially when coupled with the Sampson radar on board a Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer.
As well as being used by HMS Diamond in repelling the largest Houthi attack to date in the Red Sea, the weapon was responsible for shooting down a suspected attack drone that was targeting merchant ships in December.
The Sea Viper missile system includes:
- Aster 15 – Range up to 30km
- Aster 30 – Range up to 120km
Houthi attack – what we know
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the Type 45 destroyer shot down "multiple attack drones" using her Sea Viper missiles and guns.
No injuries or damage was sustained to Diamond or her crew – the ship is in the region as part of an international coalition to protect shipping.
HMS Diamond would have most probably initially used Sea Viper missiles to engage the Houthi targets.
According to the US Central Command's (CENTCOM) statement, the Houthis fired a mixture of Iranian-made one-way attack drones, plus anti-ship cruise missiles and an anti-ship ballistic missile.
If Diamond was engaging one of the Houthi missiles she would almost certainly have implemented her Sea Viper missiles to guarantee target destruction.
The cruise missiles fly at approximately 1,000mph and the ballistic missiles possibly up to 3,000mph and it would be impossible to engage with the guns onboard unless flying directly at the ship.
The Iranian-designed drones fly slower than these at approximately 150mph.
According to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) statement, the US F/A 18 Hornets from the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier were engaging targets also, so these were likely shooting down drones.
HMS Diamond may then have chosen to engage drones with the ship's 4.5-inch gun, which would imply the ship was geographically quite close to the drone's flight path.
The 4.5-inch gun has a high rate of fire up to 25 rounds per minute but it is unclear if it can be used for air defence.
If the 4.5-inch gun was not used then the 20 mm Phalanx Gatling gun or the 30 mm Oerlikon cannon are likely to have been utilised. This would mean the Houthi drones would have probably been within 3 km of the ship which is uncomfortably close for a warship.
Weaponry
HMS Diamond possesses cutting-edge military sensors and a range of sophisticated weapons systems and is ready to detect and destroy any airborne, surface, and sub-surface threat.
- 4.5 inch main gun. Range 17 km against surface targets. The maximum range against airborne targets is unknown but probably approx 10km.
- 2 x Phalanx 20mm Gatling guns. Rate of fire – 4,500 rounds per minute. Auto-engages target at approximately 2 km
- 2 x 30mm Oerlikon machine guns. Rate of fire – 200 rounds per minute. Effective range 2.7km. Horizontal maximum range 4km
- 4 x 50 calibre Heavy Machine Guns. With a range of 1.8km
- 2 x 7.62 calibre Miniguns. Rate of fire – 2,000 rounds per minute. Range 1km
- 4 x General Purpose Machine Guns. – Range 1.8km
Crew
The personnel of Diamond are highly trained with skills primarily based around defending the fleet from air attack.
These skills include: long-range air target searching, multiple target tracking, long-distance target engagement and use as a Merlin and Wildcat helicopter platform.
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