UK send ‘stealth’ destroyer to Gulf

The Royal Navy’s newest and most advanced ship is being sent to the Gulf for her first mission, amid heightened tensions over threats by Iran to block a busy shipping lane.

Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring, which employs a “stealth” design to avoid detection, will join the British presence in the region, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

Although the deployment of the hi-tech vessel has been planned for more than a year, it comes as Britain and allies have issued clear warnings to Iran.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond warned the regime yesterday that any attempt to block the Strait of Hormuz would be countered militarily if necessary.

Iran has been holding naval exercises in the strait, which is used by a third of the world’s oil tanker traffic.