HMS Diamond destroyed Houthi missiles and drones (Image: Ministry of Defence)
Britain looks set to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea to counter the threat of Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Armed Forces minister James Heappey said either the HMS Queen Elizabeth or the HMS Prince of Wales could replace the USS Dwight D Eisenhower when it returns to the US.
The commander of the Houthi forces, Mohamed al-Atifi, said the group was prepared for a long conflict over the Red Sea, where it has launched dozens of drone and missile attacks against commercial and naval ships since November.
Mr Heappey told The House magazine: “The Eisenhower can’t stay there forever, and so there’s a thing about just maintaining a carrier presence in the region where we might cooperate with the Americans to provide a capability there.”
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The USS Eisenhower (right) is set to return to the US 'soon' (Image: Getty)
Heappey suggested that the departure of the US aircraft carrier - dubbed 'Ike' could be imminent.
He added: “So our judgment was that with the Ike on station – the Eisenhower on station – and with jets available from Akrotiri, that we were able to meet the challenge as it is now.
“That’s not to say that when the Eisenhower goes home, if we were needed to plug a gap in US deployments, or if the situation deteriorates and we need more, that we wouldn't [send a British carrier].”
Many military experts have criticised the Ministry of Defence for not deploying an aircraft carrier to the region sooner.
Sarah Atherton, the Conservative MP for Wrexham who sits on the Defence Committee, added that: “The issue we have is: why is the carrier or one of the carriers not out there?
"Because the carrier can offer 360 instant response and has power projection – this is exactly what the carrier was designed for. Instead, what we're seeing is sortie machines from Cyprus for the Typhoon and two Voyager refuelers going out on a 3,200 mile round trip.”
Mr Heappey added: “There's no real need for more carrier mass – for more carriers to be in the region than the Ike [the Eisenhower’s nickname] can provide. She's a very capable ship."
If an aircraft carrier were to be deployed, she would join the Royal Navy's HMS Diamond. The Type-45 destroyer is on patrol in the Red Sea to protect cargo ships transitting the region.
But the British warship was attacked on Saturday.
HMS Diamond also shot down a barrage of drones and missiles in “the largest attack on a Royal Navy warship in decades.”
The vessel destroyed seven of the 21 Iranian-manufactured weapons. The other 14 were shot down by American fighter jets from the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is part of an international response to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
The Royal Air Force has also joined fighter jets deployed from the American aircraft carrier to strike targets in Yemen.
The Daily Express understands British fighter jets destroyed eight missile launchers clustered into two batteries during the mission last Monday.
Sources said three launchers were targeted at one location, near Sanaa airfield, while five more were hit at another site near the Yemeni capital.
American warplanes, destroyers and a submarine also joined the operation in a bid to restore security in the Red Sea.
The US struck an underground storage facility used by the Houthis, an official said. The storage site was assessed to have “more advanced conventional weapons,” including missiles and one-way attack drones.
American forces also revealed they fired at air defence and radar systems.
Ten days before, British and American forces blitzed more than 60 Houthi targets in a critical bid to “restore stability” in the Red Sea.
Military chiefs ordered fighter jets, navy destroyers and an American submarine to bomb drone storage units, missile launch sites, airfields, ammunition supplies, production facilities and air defence radar systems.
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The Ministry of Defence said any carrier deployment would be “based on operational need”.
A spokesperson said: “As the Minister set out, any decision as to whether to deploy the carriers will be made in conjunction with our allies and based on operational need.”
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