The Royal Navy destroyer sent to protect British forces after a drone strike on Cyprus spent three days lingering in the English Channel before finally clearing UK waters. The £1 billion air-defence warship HMS Dragon set sail from Portsmouth on Tuesday but did not leave British waters until yesterday, despite being ordered to rush to the eastern Mediterranean following an attack on the British base at RAF Akrotiri.

The Type 45 destroyer — one of the Navy’s most advanced air-defence ships — had already been delayed for a week while undergoing repairs before departure. The first thing the warship did after leaving Portsmouth Harbour was switch off its transponder, which normally broadcasts its position to other vessels. However, rather than immediately heading out into the Atlantic, the ship spent three days transiting the Channel before passing Land’s End and heading south.

At one stage HMS Dragon had been scheduled to call at Plymouth for a crew change. That plan was abandoned after senior Royal Navy commanders ordered the ship to press on with its deployment, reported The Sun.

The destroyer was dispatched after Prime Minister Keir Starmer ordered a naval response when RAF Akrotiri was struck by an Iranian drone on March 1. The drone evaded air defences and hit a hangar used by US surveillance aircraft close to family accommodation on the base. Senior officers subsequently ordered military dependents to evacuate amid fears of further strikes.

The episode raised questions about Britain’s readiness because none of the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers were at sea when the drone struck. Although three were classed as operational — including HMS Dragon — the vessel was still in dry dock at the time, without weapons fitted and surrounded by scaffolding. Sailors and engineers worked around the clock to ready the ship for deployment, loading Sea Viper missiles and supplies.

Navy sources insisted the crew compressed weeks of preparation into a matter of days, saying they had effectively completed “six weeks’ work in six days”. Despite that effort, the delays intensified criticism that the UK had left its forces exposed as tensions with Iran escalated.

Former First Sea Lord Alan West warned the episode showed a lack of strategic awareness in government. Lord West said: “There is no understanding in government of the importance of maritime power. There isn’t a single warship between Singapore and Gibraltar. It’s astonishing that no one had the geopolitical sense to make these decisions earlier.”

The Ministry of Defence confirmed the destroyer was continuing its transit towards the eastern Mediterranean. An MoD spokesman said: “The deployment is intended to help safeguard UK assets and interests in the region.” The spokesman added that it was not unusual for naval vessels to complete final maintenance work shortly after sailing while already at sea.

The urgency of the mission comes as the wider regional crisis deepens. A French soldier was killed and several others wounded in a drone strike in Erbil, Iraq, while RAF Regiment troops armed with Martlet missiles have been repeatedly intercepting drones around a joint Special Forces base.

British fighter jets are also flying defensive patrols across the Gulf region, including over Bahrain, while Typhoons and F-35s continue air defence missions over Qatar, Cyprus, the UAE and Jordan. Meanwhile, Iran has begun laying naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz — a strategic shipping lane through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes — raising fears of further escalation in an already volatile confrontation.

Express.co.uk has contacted the MoD for further comment.