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‘Five seconds to impact’: Watch £1bn Royal Navy Warship fire advanced Sea Viper missile at drone

HMS Defender deployed to Scotland to test missiles against ballistic, subsonic and supersonic targets.

Watch: Royal Navy ship test fires Sea Viper missile system

This is the moment a £1 billion Royal Navy warship destroyed a jet drone during the world’s largest naval and missile defences test.

HMS Defender led the Royal Navy’s participation as a dedicated air defence destroyer designed to shield a task group, which culminated in a firing of a Sea Viper missile system at a target.

Formidable Shield 2023 was hosted in the Outer Hebrides, in Scotland, and brought together aircraft, naval ships and more than 4,000 military personnel from 13 Nato nations.

Petty Officer Cameron McDonnell controlled the Sea Viper missile fired from Defender against the highly-manoeuvrable drone – Bruiser 9384 – which travels hundreds of miles an hour.

As seen from on board HMS Defender. (SWNS)
As seen from on board HMS Defender. (SWNS)

With the order to launch given, the missile burst from its silo in a flash of fire, thunder and smoke, accelerating in seconds to more than three times the speed of sound as it arced into the Atlantic sky.

“Five seconds to impact,” PO McDonnell relayed over the radio.

“Viper assessed kill. Bruiser 9384 splashed. Destroyed. Destroyed. Destroyed.”

The Navy say HMS Defender provided an "umbrella of protection", calculating that a threat was approaching using her distinctive radar systems: the Sampson (the spiked ball atop the distinctive main mast) and the Long Range (large black rectangle).

Combined they make the Type 45s world-leading air defence ships, giving them the ability to track hundreds of targets as far as 250 miles away.

All of this cutting-edge technology makes up the Sea Viper system, which allows Defender to accurately find and track a target before firing the Aster 30 missile.

HMS Defender deployed to Scotland to test missiles, systems, sensors and software. (SWNS)
HMS Defender deployed to Scotland to test missiles, systems, sensors and software. (SWNS)

Lieutenant commander Carl Marin-Ortega, HMS Defender’s weapon engineer officer, said the successful firing was crucial for the future of the Fleet’s air defence.

The missile system is undergoing a £300m upgrade to ensure the Navy is protected from the latest threats, including anti-ship ballistic missiles.

Known as Sea Viper Evolution, the enhancements to both the radar and missile will support 54 jobs in the UK at sites from the Isle of Wight to Hertfordshire, Bristol and Bolton.

Reflecting on a visit to Formidable Shield last month, Minister for Defence Procurement, James Cartlidge MP, said: “Formidable Shield is a hugely important exercise and I was honoured to see first-hand the cooperation between our Allied nations.”