A Royal Navy frigate used its missiles to shoot down two attack drones as the US and its allies came under sustained Houthi attack in the Red Sea in the early hours of Saturday.
The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, announced HMS Richmond’s role in destroying the targets in a post on X.
Shapps wrote: “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.”
The Ministry of Defence said the Type 23 frigate and international allies “fully repelled” a Houthi drone attack, with no injuries or damage sustained in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
It added that the Richmond’s crew acted in an “exemplary manner” and the UK was “unwavering in our position that we will take the action necessary to protect innocent lives and the global economy”.
The US Central Command said the US military and coalition forces had downed at least 28 Houthi drones in total over the Red Sea on Saturday.
It 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”. The Houthi attack was conducted between 1am and 3.30am UK time.
Houthi rebels claim to have orchestrated one of their largest attacks on US shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The group said they sent 37 drones to attack US navy war ships and a commercial ship, the Singapore-flagged Propel Fortune.
A statement issued by the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said the attack had been a success but provided no evidence.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched repeated strikes on international commercial shipping in the Red Sea since mid-November in response to the conflict in Gaza, although the merchant vessels targeted have often had little or no link to Israel.
It has culminated in several vessels being rerouted, passing through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to take a longer route around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
