The Royal Navy used a Wildcat helicopter to stop a smugglers’ boat in The Gulf
(Picture: PA Media)A Royal Navy Wildcat helicopter forced Iranian weapons smugglers to abandon controls of their speed boat by swooping so low as it raced across The Gulf of Oman, The Standard understands.
As the three men were forced onto the floor of the skiff by the aircraft’s powerful downwash, a Royal Marine boarding party was able to seize control of it in the dead of night.
The smugglers were caught making two crossings, with missile components and crucially a quadcopter drone.
The internal drive of the drone’s controllers was found to still have a record of 22 test flights carried out at a known headquarters of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The evidence is believed to have blown apart efforts by the Iranian regime to conceal the origins of weapons being shipped to Houthi rebels fighting a civil war in Yemen.
Iranian military engineers went to great lengths to hide any sign that weapons being sent across the Gulf had been made in their country.
They even included trying to replicate a circuit board’s serial plate.
But crucially, they made a tiny slip when using a lower case l or number 1 instead of an i.
Britain is now presenting the findings to a United Nations Panel of Experts to prove that Iran is in breach of sanctions over Yemen and on the proliferation of advanced weapons.
The interdictions of the smugglers’ crossings were carried out by HMS Montrose in January and February in the early hours of the morning as their boat, travelling at up to 40 knots, was speeding across The Gulf.
The Ministry of Defence has spent months analysing the seized weapons, which were wrapped in plastic and included full components of a surface to air missile, an engine for a land attack cruise missile, and the quadcopter.
By decrypting the internal memory of its controllers, the MoD discovered the records of 22 test flights conducted at the IRGC Aerospace Force Headquarters and test facility in western Tehran.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “The UK is committed to upholding international law and will continue to counter Iranian activity that contravenes United Nation Security Council Resolutions and threatens peace across the world.
“That is why we have a permanent Royal Navy deployment in the Gulf region, conducting vital maritime security operations and working in support of an enduring peace in Yemen.”
The missiles are suspected of being the type used by the Houthis to attack Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran has also supplied hundreds of Shahed “kamikaze” drones to Russia, which have been used in attacks in Ukraine, including on civilians and key infrastructure sites such as power plants.
