Royal Navy’s Type 45 air defense destroyer HMS Diamond is bound to port once again during the maiden deployment of the Royal Navy Carrier Strike Group to Asia Pacific.
After first being forced to dock in the Italian port city Augusta, in Sicily, in July this year, the destroyer is now in Singapore due to unspecified technical issues.
This was confirmed by the UK embassy in Singapore who said HMS Diamond was “unfortunately unable to participate in Monday’s event as it had experienced some technical issues.”
The Monday’s event in Singapore was a flypast and naval vessel display to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA).
Prior to this the destroyer had been participating in exercise Bersama Gold with other FPDA partners, in the first physical FPDA exercise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July this year, when the destroyer broke down for the first time spending some two months in port, observers said HMS Diamond may have suffered a gas turbine engine failure. Many are now discounting the probability of engine problems, but the navy is yet to issue a statement on the nature of the defect.
With HMS Diamond stuck in port, the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group (CSG) deployment, which is led by aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, is now again left with a single UK destroyer – HMS Defender – providing air-defense for the group on the return leg of the deployment.
The CSG sailed into the Bay of Bengal on October 15, and is poised to take part in the “most demanding exercise ever between the UK and India,” incorporating elements from all three military services.
