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.
Diamond’s main task in the Red Sea has been to protect merchant ships travelling through this key trade route. But for this mission she’d be escorting a naval task force of UK support ships sailing towards the Indian Ocean – with two US destroyers providing additional protection.
Up on the bridge the navigator, Lt Josh Tyrie, showed the route we’d be taking – past Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, through the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait and out into the Gulf of Aden.
They call this the High Threat Area – where the Houthis have been focusing their attacks on both merchant shipping and coalition warships.
“There’s a regular drumbeat of drones and missiles, so there’s a good possibility that will happen,” Lt Tyrie said.
By now the entire crew had changed from their blue uniforms to fire-resistant white overalls. We’d all been issued anti-flash hoods and gloves to wear in case the ship was hit.
We waited inside the operations room – the ship’s nerve centre – where the crew stare into rows of monitors and screens. With the ship’s powerful radar they can track multiple objects simultaneously for hundreds of miles.
At 20:35 came the first blast of a whistle with a shout of “fireball” – the code for a detected missile launch. The ship’s alarm sounded to alert the rest of the crew with the words: “Air threat warning red – missile inbound.”
As they tracked the missile’s flight path they issued updates. The air threat was lowered from red to yellow and then white. The tension eased and sailors removed their anti-flash hoods and gloves.