Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Diamond sails out of Portsmouth to the Black Sea region in support of NATO

HMS Diamond had been expected to deploy last week to support the Nato response to the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

The mighty warship has been earmarked to join an alliance fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, accompanied by Portsmouth-based patrol ship HMS Trent.

Initially, the Type 45 vessel had been due to leave her home base of Portsmouth on February 17 but its departure was delayed due to Storm Eunice.

Equipped with the ferocious Sea Viper missile, which can knock moving targets out of the sky from up to 70 miles away, Type 45 destroyers are the ‘backbone of the Royal Navy’, the service said.