A Royal Navy destroyer has shot down a ballistic missile fired by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group for the first time.
HMS Diamond was defending a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday when it used its Sea Viper missile system to destroy the Iranian-made weapon, which was fired from Yemen.
Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, said it was the first time a Royal Navy warship had intercepted a missile in combat since the Gulf War in 1991. It is the first time the navy has shot down a ballistic missile in combat.
Shapps said: “A commercial ship came under attack by a missile and HMS Diamond shot down that missile using Sea Viper.”
He said the attack demonstrated how dangerous the world
