I was on a Navy destroyer training for attacks – then a Russian warship appeared

CARDIGAN BAY – For a second, all I see is smoke. It billows through the corridors, illuminated by red lights. Pops of gunfire ring out, some blasts so loud they shake the ceiling. A voice crackles over the tannoy: “Fireball, fireball, fireball, ballistic missile now inbound to this unit.” I’m on board HMS Dauntless, one of the Royal Navy’s most powerful warships, and it is under fire from all angles. There is a fire on board, and now missiles are heading towards it. This is all a simulation – part of “Exercise Sharpshooter” – but it’s not remotely far-fetched. British ships spent months shooting down drones from Houthi militants in the Middle East and defending against Iranian strikes. Shorts The i Paper was granted rare access to join Dauntless’s crew for their final week of training before being deployed on operations. The team has no idea what will be thrown at them – or when. Some threats are synthetic, appearing only on the radar systems, while others are physical – spider-like aircraft whirring through the air or uncrewed boats approaching from the horizon. Half the crew work on an eight-hour shift, while the others eat, wash and rest, before swapping over – but they can never truly switch off. A group of sailors watches Clarkson’s Farm clad head to toe in overalls and hoods, with only their eyes exposed, the sound of the TV intermittently disrupted by the deafening noise as an automatic gun fires nearby. At any moment, a tannoy announcement can call them into action. On more than one occasion, as a simulated ballistic missile zooms towards them, the entire crew is hauled out of bed, grasping life jackets, racing up ladders and working together to shoot it down as quickly as possible. One false move in a real-world situation could see the ship, and those it is protecting, suffer catastrophic damage. Reporter Molly Blackall on board HMS Dauntless during Exercise Sharpshooter (Photo: Damien Bye/UK Ministry of Defence Crown) Not all emergencies are simulated. One night, the tannoy calls out a genuine injury: someone has been hurt on the gun deck. The casualty is later confirmed “walking wounded” with a minor injury and returns to duty the following day. It’s not the only time that simulation blurs into reality. On the final day, a chilling twist brings a real and unplanned character into the wargame. A Russian frigate appears on the ship’s radar, 29 nautical miles away but heading towards it. The radar blinks, and the frigate reappears seven miles closer. It comes within 20 miles of Dauntless before their paths diverge. The crew are remarkably calm, a sign of how common encounters with Russian ships sailing close to the UK have become – more than 170 “shadow fleet” vessels passed near or through UK waters this summer, with a Russian presence in the Channel almost every day, analysis by The i Paper found. These encounters mostly pass without incident, but in June, Royal Marine commandos performed a dramatic interception of a sanctioned shadow fleet oil tanker, descending on to the vessel from helicopters and detaining its crew. Threats go beyond at-sea incidents. On Thursday, police said that a serving member of the Royal Navy had been charged with spying for an unnamed foreign power. The alleged offences took place between November 2024 and May 2025, with Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, saying: “These are very serious charges against a serving member of the Armed Forces.” HMS Dauntless‘s crew was in its final week of training before being deployed on operations (Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty) The Dauntless’s training is being led by a man with first-hand experience of the type of attacks its crew could face. Lieutenant Commander David Ferguson spent six weeks on board another Navy warship, HMS Richmond, as it faced off against Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. There, the crew faced the “constant threat of ballistic missile strike and a very limited time to react”, he says, with threats from drones on air, surface and undersea. Some threats could give an hour’s notice, others demanded a response within 45 seconds. The experience proved to him that “training works”, Ferguson adds, recalling a feeling of calm even as attacks rained down. “You clearly have those emotions and you process them at a later date, but primarily you’re almost going into a function output.” He describes the operation as “unlike anything else I’ve experienced”, with high adrenaline and a sense of hyperfocus. Firefighters in action during a fire exercise as part of Exercise Sharpshooter (Photo: LPhot Damien Bye/UK Ministry of Defence Crown) In recent months, however, the readiness of the Navy has been called into question. As a British airbase in Cyprus was pounded with Iranian drones earlier this year, it took nearly a week to deploy a warship to protect it. The vessel – HMS Dragon, one of Dauntless’s sister ships – was tied up in maintenance while other ships were committed to other operations, triggering “bitter recriminations and intense soul-searching about the Royal Navy”, as one former officer put it. While insiders say that the Dragon’s crew managed to fit six weeks’ worth of work into six days to enable it to deploy, they admit that rounds of defence cuts have hindered the Navy. It came after Donald Trump insulted the British fleet, calling Royal Navy warships “toys” after the UK refused to follow the US into his war with Iran. The Navy is working to adapt to modern warfare and the rising use of drones, investing heavily in a “hybrid force” – a mixture of crewed and autonomous vessels. Many ships have been updated to respond to today’s challenges; Dauntless‘s Sea Viper missile system – designed to take out supersonic missiles – is among the most advanced maritime air-defence systems in the world, reaching four times the speed of sound. HMS Dauntless‘s gunnery department during Exercise Sharpshooter, as it fends off attacks from a range of autonomous systems (Photo: LPhot Damien Bye/UK Ministry of Defence Crown) Meanwhile, other capabilities are being phased out altogether. The Navy’s Wildcat helicopter fleet is set to be replaced with uncrewed rotary aircraft, though it is not clear by when. Arnie, 26, is a flight observer, managing a helicopter’s navigation, weapons and sensors while his partner flies. He can go from relaxing anywhere on the ship to being airborne within 15 minutes. As well as tracking or shooting down threats, his helicopter can be used for medical evacuations. Due to the particularly risky nature of their work, the helicopter pilots are the only Dauntless crew members always entitled to a full night’s sleep, to avoid dangerous flying. Long term, Arnie thinks AI will be able to do his job, but will not ever replace him. “I think that it will always be relevant to have people who are trained and understand what they’re seeing, but not necessarily in the aircraft. You could be on land giving that same oversight.” Dauntless’s recent training sought to introduce different uncrewed or autonomous systems to the crew, blending tried-and-tested machinery with cutting-edge tech. But whatever the capabilities, old-fashioned human grit remains at the exercise’s core. “Everyone in the proper routines, wearing the proper clothes, using all the weapons, is the closest you can get” to real-life operations, Arnie says. “No one knows how that will actually be, how you will actually react in real life, but this is the best exposure you can give people to that stress prior to having to do it for real,” he adds. “If we got the opportunity, then sure, we’d be ready.”