It was designed to defend Royal Navy frigates from fast inshore attack craft armed with short-range missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, or explosives.

[2] In mid-2007, MSI delivered the first two mountings, which were installed on HMS Somerset in August 2007, and used in sea trials on gun ranges in the English Channel starting in October 2007.

[2] In 2008, the management consultancy company CORDA (part of BAE Systems) was awarded a £300,000 research contract by the UK MoD's Defence Technology and Innovation Centre to assess the level of protection British warships receive from small calibre 30mm guns.

"[3] The study used simulator-based operator trials at the Maritime Warfare School to quantify the performance of the weapon system when engaging multiple targets.

[3] In 2019, a trial was carried out on board HMS Sutherland to test the fitting and operation of Martlet light surface-to-surface missiles on a modified DS30M Mark 2 mount.