The French Ministry of the Armed Forces confirms that a French Navy warship shot down two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that were launched against it while it was on patrol in the Red Sea off Yemen on Saturday, December 9.
The successful interception occurred at around 21:30 local time on Saturday while the guided-missile frigate Languedoc was underway some 110 kilometres off the coast of Hodeida.
The frigate shot down both drones, which French military officials claim were identified as hostile and were fired from somewhere within Yemen.
The incident is the latest in a series of successful UAV interceptions by NATO warships to protect commercial shipping passing through the Red Sea. Earlier this month, the US Navy guided-missile destroyers USS Carney and USS Mason shot down a total of four drones, all of which were fired from areas in Yemen under the control of the Iran-backed Houthi militia.