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The Type 45 destroyer was due to travel through the Suez Canal with the rest of the strike group, but she has had to return to a Mediterranean port due to ‘technical issues’, according to a navy spokesman.

HMS Diamond arrived in Larnaca, Cyprus before sailing on July 5 – but did not join the strike group which passed through the canal two days later and instead came alongside the NATO pier in Augusta Sicily, according to the website Navy Lookout.

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Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond pictured alongside at the Upper Harbour Ammunition Facility in Portsmouth, where warships are rearmed safely. Photo: Royal Navy

The outlet is reporting the warship as suffering from a ‘serious defect’ affecting her gas turbine engine.

A Royal Navy spokesman told the outlet: ‘HMS Diamond has experienced some technical issues and has detached from the Task Group for maintenance, inspection and any necessary repairs.

‘She is expected to re-join the Task Group.’

It come as the carrier strike group including HMS Queen Elizabeth faces a major Covid outbreak that is believed to been spread by sailors out raving in Cyprus.

Royal Navy warship HMS Diamond suffers 'serious defect' and detaches from HMS Queen Elizabeth strike group

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