BRITISH warship HMS Richmond last night destroyed two attack Houthi drones with powerful Sea Ceptor missiles.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps announced the successful response to yet another attack by the rebels.
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Fifteen drones fired by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden were shot down by the US and its allies this morning, according to authorities.
US Central Command said it had responded to a “large-scale” attack involving unmanned aerial vehicles that presented “an imminent threat to merchant vessels, US navy and coalition ships in the region”.
It added that its navy ships and aircraft, along with “multiple coalition navy ships and aircraft”, shot down 15 drones.
British warship HMS Richmond downed two of the attack drones, according to Britain’s defence secretary.
Read more on Red Sea tensions
Mr Shapps said this afternoon: “Last night, HMS Richmond used its Sea Ceptor missiles to shoot down two attack drones – successfully repelling yet another illegal attack by the Iranian backed Houthis.
“The UK and our allies will continue to take the action necessary to save lives and protect freedom of navigation.”
Sea Ceptor missiles can protect an area the size of Greater Manchester – 500 square miles, according to the Royal Navy.
The US combatant command said the Houthi attack was conducted between 4am and 6.30am Sanaa time, or 1am and 3.30am UK time.
Houthi rebels today claimed to have launched one of their largest attacks on US shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
They said they sent 37 drones to attack US navy war ships and a commercial ship, the Singapore-flagged Propel Fortune, and called their mission a success – but provided no evidence.
Danish frigate Iver Huitfeldt also helped in repelling the attacks, shooting down four Houthi drones in the Red Sea on Friday night.
The commander on the Iver Huitfeldt, Capt Sune Lund, said: “At a little after 4am local time we recognised a drone which was heading towards Iver Huitfeldt and the surrounding ships.
“After making sure it was an enemy, we engaged and defeated it. Over the next hour this happened three more times,” The Guardian reports.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched repeated strikes on international commercial shipping in the Red Sea since mid-November, purportedly in solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Several shipping companies have been forced to reroute their vessels passing through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to take a longer alternative route around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
And such changes have resulted in major delays and impacted companies including Suzuki, Tesla, BP, Shell, Qatar Energy, DHL, FedEx, Adidas, Marks & Spencer, Next, Primark, Sainsbury’s, and Target.
The price of global shipping containers jumped by more than 300 per cent between November and January.
The UK and the US have been carrying out joint airstrikes against the Houthis in recent weeks to try and stop their attacks on shipping.
Britain deployed HMS Richmond to the Red Sea in January to bolster the Royal Navy’s presence in the region as Houthi rebels refused to release their grip on one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The Type 23 frigate set sail from Plymouth armed with 32 Sea Captor missiles and a Wildcat helicopter.
HMS Richmond joined the destroyer HMS Diamond, frigate HMS Lancaster, a squadron of three mine hunting vessels HMS Bangor, HMS Chiddingfold and HMS Middleton and the support ship RFA Cardigan Bay.
A defence source told The Sun at the time that HMS Richmond would allow other vessels to rotate through ports without tweaking the Royal Navy presence.
Days later, British and US warships shot down a barrage of 18 drones and three missiles fired towards the Red Sea by the rebels.
The coordinated blitz, involving Royal Navy destroyer HMS Diamond and American warships, followed another Houthi attack.
US Central Command said the “complex attack” included bomb-carrying drones, anti-ship cruise missiles and one anti-ship ballistic missile.
It claimed 18 drones, two cruise missiles and the anti-ship missile were downed by F-18s from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, American Arleigh Burke-class destroyers the USS Gravely, the USS Laboon and the USS Mason, as well as the UK’s HMS Diamond.
HMS Diamond blasted seven of the 18 drones out of the sky.
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