Skip to content
Recruiting now.Explore navy careers

HMS St Albans proves ability to defend against aerial threats in Sharpshooter exercise

HMS St Albans showed her ability to defend against aerial threats in Sharpshooter exercise
13 December 2024
Banshees, hundreds of them.

The gunners of HMS St Albans faced down scores of attacks by drone jets as Royal Navy training embraced lessons of Red Sea attacks.

For the first time since the Sharpshooter gunnery exercise was introduced off the Welsh Coast in 2019, aerial drones were thrown into the mix as a Royal Navy warship dealt with the threat posed by evolving technology.

The shoot – testing the alertness and marksmanship of both gunnery and ops room teams – sees a hail of steel thrown against incoming threats (traditionally remote-controlled boats) from medium calibre weapons and small arms: from the automated or manually-operated 30mm to machine-guns and rifles.

Run by defence/technology firm Qinetiq hand-in-hand with Royal Navy experts from Fleet Operational Standards and Training (better known FOST), the exercise has grown and evolved to train Royal Navy warships and their crews, keeping pace with the latest developments in tech, threats and scenarios – building up to Sharpshooter 2024.

This year Royal Navy personnel have faced – and fended off – persistent drone attacks for the first time, with both HMS Diamond and Richmond engaging incoming robot aircraft in the Red Sea.

That made the new aerial element of the three-day exercise especially pertinent.

Banshee Whirlwind drones were launched from the Aberporth Range, while a ‘danger zone’ was designated around 20 miles off coast, where HMS St Albans – which is regenerating as the penultimate Type 23 frigate to undergo her life extension refit – was poised to deal with them.

A fantastic experience and one which has been hugely beneficial to my ship’s company.

Commander Matthew Teare, HMS St Albans' Commanding Officer

A joint team from QinetiQ and Inzpire, which delivers technical training to the MOD, lined up a combination of static sea targets and, for the first time at Sharpshooter, dynamic aerial targets

The Banshees were programmed to fly more than 100 different ‘threat profiles’ – namely different methods and directions of coming at HMS St Albans – while the frigate’s gunners laid down the lead under the direction of the ops room team endeavouring to keep track of the incoming bogeys.

Just 9½ft long and with a wingspan of 8ft, Banshee is small, fast (top speed 200kts) and can fly as low as 16ft above the waves.

“The quality of training has been better than I have ever seen," said Commander Matthew Teare, HMS St Albans' Commanding Officer. "It has been a career highlight thanks to the realism of the scenario. A fantastic experience and one which has been hugely beneficial to my ship’s company.”

The next Royal Navy vessel to run the Sharpshooter gauntlet will be in the spring and based on The Saint’s experience, Simon Galt, Managing Director Air at QinetiQ, believes the exercise is “invaluable” for any ship’s company “to ensure they remain as safe as possible in operational environments”.

He continued: “Our aim with Sharpshooter is to ensure as immersive, comprehensive and dynamic a training experience as possible, preparing the ship’s crew for the very current evolving threat landscape.

“Our joint QinetiQ-Inzpire team delivered over 100 threat profiles across day and night, tailoring the complexity of each scenario as we delivered, according to the ship’s evolving requirements.”

Related articles

Navy News

Direct from the front-line, the official newspaper of the Royal Navy, Navy News, brings you the latest news, features and award winning photos every month.