The Italian destroyer Caio Duilio erases a Houthi drone. German destroyer Hesse almost destroys US drone

As the Defense Ministry announced, the Navy destroyer ship Caio Duilio shot down a Houthi drone as part of the mission to defend commercial traffic in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden areas.

Caio Duilio, named from a Roman Admiral

The action was consistent with the operation to protect commercial traffic in the area, which has nothing to do with the action to attack Houthi positions in Yemen led by the UK and US, which, so far, has had no practical effect.

No further information is given on either which drone was shot down or how it was shot down, but it can be assumed that the airborne craft was shot down by an Aster missile from the ship’s PAAMS anti-aircraft missile system, a system designed to protect even from attack by missiles flying over water.

Aster SA Missile

Update: From later news it was learned that the ship shot down the drone without using the expensive missiles, but the 76 mm cannon about 4 km away from the ship

It is not even specified whether the attack was made directly against the ship or against a commercial ship that was passing through the area.

If nothing else, at least we shot at and destroyed an enemy target because the Germans managed to shoot at a NATO vehicle.

the Hesse

On Feb. 29, a German navy ship mistakenly targeted a U.S. Reaper drone in the Red Sea while operating under the same EU mission as the Caio Duilio to protect shipping in this vital waterway, a Defense Department official said Thursday.

The MQ-9 drone was not damaged in Tuesday’s incident and continued its mission, the U.S. official said, but only because the two Standard SM-2 missiles launched from the Hesse failed to reach the target, which should make the ship’s crew and the German Defense Ministry think a little bit about the quality of its operational procedures. When it did manage to act against the Houthi drones, the Hesse did so with 76mm guns and the RAM short-range system, then let the drones get very close to the ship, taking some risk.

The U.S. drone did not have its transponder activated, which would have allowed it to be identified as friendly, so on the one hand it was really a hostile drone to the ship, and on the other hand, one has to wonder why a U.S. craft would want to remain unidentified to NATO allies.