Direct proof of use
The Royal Navy documented close-in 30 mm gun use by HMS Diamond during the 2023 Red Sea Crisis. Its April 25, 2024 account of Diamond's Red Sea and Gulf of Aden deployment said the destroyer's ship's company had used a 30 mm cannon to shoot down a Houthi drone while protecting merchant shipping.
A later Royal Navy honours release named Able Seaman Sam Winton as the manual controller for Diamond's 30 mm gun and said he shot down a drone with ten rounds. That account places the engagement in Diamond's defensive actions against Houthi drones during the Red Sea deployment.
Sources: Royal Navy Houthi Missile Shootdown, Royal Navy New Years Honours
Timeline
Royal Navy reporting ties Diamond's first Red Sea deployment to Operation Prosperity Guardian and repeated Houthi drone and missile attacks on merchant shipping. On January 9, 2024, the ship defeated seven drones aimed at merchant vessels using Sea Viper missiles and guns; the service did not publicly assign each intercept in that attack to a specific weapon.
By April 2024, after Diamond had returned to the theater and intercepted a Houthi missile in the Gulf of Aden, Royal Navy reporting separately credited the ship's crew with using a 30 mm cannon to destroy a Houthi drone. The later honours account gives the clearest public description of the 30 mm engagement, describing a short manual burst rather than a missile intercept.
Sources: Royal Navy Diamond Returns, Royal Navy Houthi Missile Shootdown, Royal Navy New Years Honours
Operational role
The documented role of Diamond's 30 mm gun was close-in air defense and force protection. It supplemented the destroyer's Sea Viper missile system against Houthi unmanned aerial threats while the ship operated in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to protect commercial traffic.
Official Royal Navy sources identify the weapon used in the drone engagement as Diamond's 30 mm gun or cannon. Naval reference reporting on the Royal Navy 30 mm automated small-calibre gun family identifies Type 45 destroyers such as Diamond with the DS30M / DS30B 30 mm mount family, so this usage record treats the public claim as a documented 30 mm ship-gun engagement without assigning unsupported ammunition type, fire-control mode beyond the honours account, or a broader count of gun kills.
Sources: Royal Navy Houthi Missile Shootdown, Royal Navy New Years Honours, The 30mm Automated Small Calibre Gun in focus
