The Royal Navy warship HMS Dragon is heading to the eastern Mediterranean, a week after its deployment was announced.

The Type 45 destroyer is capable of shooting down drones and ballistic missiles fired by Iran and its proxies as the Middle East crisis continues.

The crew of the vessel were seen lining the deck as the ship moved out of Portsmouth harbour.

Officials said the ship had been prepared as quickly as possible for deployment, with six weeks’ worth of work squeezed into six days.

The announcement of the deployment of the ship came in response to a drone attack that hit the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus.

On Monday evening the defence secretary, John Healey, told the House of Commons that navy crews were working “tirelessly, 22 hours a day” to prepare the warship, as he faced accusations of not acting fast enough to protect British interests in the region.

The Labour minister said proposals to deploy the warship were discussed six days ago and then signed off about 36 hours after a drone struck the RAF airbase at Akrotiri on Cyprus.

That was on the fourth day of a joint US-Israel attack on Iran, which began after a highly visible six-week-long buildup of US forces in the Middle East and led to an Iranian retaliation against 10 countries within 24 hours.