Inside a darkened ops room, several banks of monitors have picked up three unknown aircraft bearing down on a group of Royal Navy ships.

Onboard the heavily armed destroyer HMS Dragon, we have just seconds to assess the military-grade data and make a series of life-or-death calls.

As Air Warfare Officer, the final say is down to me.

While I correctly identify one of the rapidly approaching jets on a radar monitor blinking data at me to be a passenger plane, I’ve failed to act on another flying in from the sea to our west.

The warplane fires a missile into one of the ships in the Carrier Strike Group — a group of Navy vessels providing mutual protection — causing significant damage and potential loss of life.

This time, it’s just a simulation. It’s one of several scenarios — located ne

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