HMS Daring provides security and reassurance to shipping in the Middle East

Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring has protected 800,000 tonnes of merchant shipping in the Middle East.

The Portsmouth-based advanced air destroyer has undertaken 20 journeys through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, reassuring merchant vessels and keeping the sea lanes open for trade.

Around 95 per cent of Britain’s economic activity depends upon the sea and a vast amount of global trade passes through the region.

HMS Daring has been key to providing reassurance in the region, being equipped to tackle possible air and surface threats with her combination of surveillance radars and Sea Viper missiles.

Commander Marcus Hember, the Commanding Officer of HMS Daring, told his ship's company he was proud of their achievements during the recent period of operations helping keep sea lanes open for trade.

The Type 45 destroyer has now handed over her security duties east of Suez to Plymouth-based HMS Monmouth, her mission in the Middle East complete after seven and a half months in the region.

Daring operates with the Royal Navy’s newest type of helicopter – the Wildcat Mk2 – which extends the ship’s capability beyond the horizon and uses its cutting-edge targeting system and surveillance radar to help reduce the threat of waterborne attack.

HMS Daring is one of six Type 45 destroyers in service with the Royal Navy and was the first to be launched. She was commissioned into the fleet in 2009.

The Type 45 destroyer proudly lays claim as the world’s most advanced air defence destroyer, a title not achieved without the hard work and training of all those on board. At 151 metres long, 8,000 tonnes and packed with the latest in air warfare technology, Daring is a world leader.