The HMS Diamond shot down the drone - the first time in decades that the Royal Navy has taken out an aerial target in anger

The HMS Diamond shot down the drone - the first time in decades that the Royal Navy has taken out an aerial target in anger

A Royal Navy destroyer warship has shot down a suspected attack drone over the Red Sea, the Defence Secretary has said.

The HMS Diamond was only sent to the region two weeks ago amid growing international concern about the threat to shipping.

The Type 45 destroyer was said to have destroyed the suspected attack drone targeting merchant shipping - with a Sea Viper missile.

It is believed to be the first time that the Royal Navy has shot down an aerial target in anger since the First Gulf War in 1991.

Grant Shapps said it was believed merchant shipping in the Red Sea was the intended target, in the latest such confrontation in the key global shipping route.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      215·
      11 months ago

      Lost. To. Goat. Farmers.

      World powers is an incredibly overplayed term when everyone can now launch drones and missles from a huge distance. Sure people can’t invade America but America sure as hell can’t just invade everywhere either. America will only invade places where they can steal huge amounts of natural resources that offset this cost. Not Yemen.

      America can easily win one war but they can’t win at every place at once

      An American ship can defend a few kms but it would take a whole military invasion to prevent the Houthis from launching across the entire country since they got long range missles.

      Not to forget Ukraine is slowly getting ditched too so the “world powers” are losing that one as well.

      • conquer4@lemmy.worldEnglish
        81·
        11 months ago

        Winning and losing is nebulous concept since ww2. The initial goal in Afghanistan was destroying al qaeda’s base of operations and killing bin laden. All accomplished, so ‘win’? The whole nation building was a nice idea, but who really cares about the goat farmers as long as they don’t harbor terrorists.

        As for Ukraine, please tell me how Russia thinks it’s (still) winning, support does seem to be waning for Ukraine support. But Russia has lost almost double the amount of tanks the US has in service alone.

        Even if they win, it will absolutely have been a pyrrhic victory that gutted their armed forces, ruined their economy, and made them dependent on China, Iran, and NK.

        BTW, a US destroyer (with some airborne radar support) can defend a thousand km in each direction and low earth orbit.