LONDON, January 28. /TASS/. The Diamond destroyer of the Royal Navy shot down a Houthi drone in the Red Sea, the UK Ministry of Defense said.

"Yesterday the crew of HMSDiamond had to once again shoot down a Houthi attack drone illegally targeting the ship," it wrote on its X (formerly known as Twitter) page.

According to the ministry, the drone was downed with the use of a Sea Viper missile system. Neither of the crew members were hurt. The ship was not damaged either.

HMS Diamond was deployed to the region nearly two months ago. Over this period, it has repelled several drone attacks. UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said on January 9 that the Richmond frigate had been commissioned to the Red Sea. On January 24, UK Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Andrew Mitchell said that HMS Richmond would soon replace HMS Diamond in the zone of patrolling.

Following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. Since mid-November, dozens of civilian ships have been attacked by the Houthi in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.