A British defence source has said HMS Diamond, the UK’s destroyer stationed in the Red Sea, had not joined retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets because it did not have ‘the capability to fire to land targets’. Instead, it has been ‘destroying Houthi drones targeting shipping in the Red Sea’.
Rear Admiral Chris Parry said that the real concern is that the Royal Navy isn’t going to be able to go toe to toe with Chinese and Russian navies.
‘We, the UK, haven’t thought about the scenarios within which those weapons might be used.
‘You need to look at the effect you want to have, and that effect should be that when a British frigate or destroyer turns up, the Chinese and the Russians say oh f—, it’s the Brits. That’s what a deterrence is all about.
‘Instead they are going to say, it’s got a pop gun on the front, no surface-to-surface missiles and a helicopter which I can shoot down with a drone so why are we worried?
‘The point is you don’t bring a knife to a gun fight, and at the moment we have the knives and they have the guns.’
Currently, the only weapons on destroyers that can fire at other ships or land are artillery guns at the front of each vessel.
None of Britain’s warships can attack land targets because they lack the firepower. This leaves the US to carry out the majority of strikes, with support from RAF planes based 1,500 miles away.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, head of the Armed Forces, warned of the need to ‘speed up our acquisition processes’ for ‘land attack missile systems’ five years ago when he was First Sea Lord.
[Photo: HMS Diamond/Royal Navy]