HMS Diamond - anti-air, air defense, guided missile destroyer
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All of the British Royal Navy destroyers can launch:
- AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM)
- AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (SLAM - Expanded Response)
IF THEY HAVE THE MISSILES
It is an anti-air ship and has almost no land strike capability unless it wants to give up it’s tubes for a few land missiles. Then it will suck for air defense. And the few missiles (40 or 50) it will carry for land strike will be quickly expended. But it cannot conduct anything like a sustained attack.
And then there is that deck gun. It’s actually smaller than the standard gun on any modern main battle tank.
The Brit navy is far outclassed by the Indian Navy and the Japanese Navy. The Falklands effort would be impossible today.
And when they load out for ground attack, they lose most of their SAMs. They lose their ability to protect the fleet. And Houthis are smart enough to figure out that’s the time to start firing missiles at them.
Same for the air wing. The best they could do is a 1500 mile each way trip from Cyprus to Yemen in a single seat fighter bomber. They have no more long range bombers and they have no friendly nations closer from which to fly. Not so long ago they would have flown in from Oman right next door.
The Cyprus to Yemen mission would be like taking off in a single seat fighter on Tinian, and conducting the out and back mission to Hiroshima like the B-29 did.
A good stunt, but grossly inefficient and ineffective.