Original subtitles

The following programme contains strong language

and scenes which some viewers may find distressing.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES)

(SINISTER STING)

(GUNSHOTS)

(TENSE, DRAMATIC MUSIC)

NEWS: It's eight o'clock on Thursday, the 15th of July.

The headline.

Two men shot dead outside a pub in Lincolnshire last night

have been identified as fighter pilots visiting nearby RAF Cranwell.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

NEWS 2: The Government has convened a meeting of

the Emergency COBRA Committee to discuss the incident.

MAN: I'm afraid it's looking like a targeted assassination,

Prime Minister.

PENNY: Our job is to protect the country.

Very little else matters.

MAN: You've got the live feed.

(MUSIC CONTINUES)

MAN: Sirs... TOM: That looks like a torpedo.

Impact! (EXPLOSION)

HARRIET: Oh, my God.

Misinformation is already spreading.

Find the submarine ASAP.

If I issue that instruction now,

I can't reverse it once I've gone out of this room.

I understand what war is.

Today's generation of politicians haven't really had to think

about that until now.

(BEEPING) MAN: Radar alert.

(WHOOSHING) (EXPLOSION)

(TENSE, DRAMATIC MUSIC)

We cannot retaliate and...

No, no, doing nothing isn't an option.

(EXPLOSION)

They are recovering as many as they can, but we must expect fatalities.

The world order that we knew is collapsing.

(EXPLOSION) (PANICKED CRIES)

We're facing a direct military threat.

Where have we been? With respect, Foreign Secretary...

I don't need respect. I just need an answer.

You don't know whether you're capable of stepping up.

It's between bad decision and worse.

We need a decision.

Michael, Michael, Michael,

we're talking about using weapons of mass destruction.

Now, we'll not sacrifice the law

because we become gung-ho in a bunker.

What is the time between launch and impact?

22 minutes.

Oh, my God. Do it now.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

We can only advise that the government are working hard.

(PHONE RINGS) Hello, Government Press Office.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES) (LOW CHATTER)

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES)

Thank you, colleagues, for coming here at such short notice.

There have been some very worrying events.

Two RAF pilots have been murdered.

I'll hand over to our Intelligence Chair, Chris.

Thank you, Prime Minister.

Last night, two RAF pilots were shot dead outside a pub in Lincolnshire.

From CCTV, you'll see the two pilots leaving the pub.

And from the right, you'll see what looks, frankly,

to be a professional assassin...

...pulls out a gun...

...and shoots them dead in the street.

He then picks up what looks like the shell casings

to cover his tracks.

The motorbike was found later abandoned nearby.

Chief of the Defence Staff,

can you tell us more about what the motivation

might have been for this attack?

So, uh, let me start with the two individuals who were killed.

They were both frontline pilots. So, they fly the F-35B jet.

That is a five-year programme. So, they're a very rare commodity.

So it seems to me the shooter had no doubt who he was shooting at.

I fear this could be part of a coordinated attempt

to harm our Air Force and ground our planes.

And it's not the only issue we're worried about,

I'm afraid to say, Prime Minister.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service is seriously affected

by a malware attack.

They've shut down all their digital systems and moved to pen and paper.

Ambulance response times to the worst Category 1 calls

have been severely hit.

The National Cyber Security Centre is working to contain the situation.

Do we know from where the attack was launched?

Forensic analysis of the attack is ongoing, and I'll update you.

Thank you. Defence Secretary, your thoughts??

We are under cyber attack every single week from states,

from, from organised crime, invasions of our-

of our airspace, of our territorial waters,

threatening, testing us.

That is normal activity. Yes.

The assassination of these two pilots is exceptional.

There is a critical question here.

Are they connected?

Prime Minister, I think it's too early to say that these are,

in fact, linked. I think we should focus critically

on the attack in Lincolnshire.

Intelligence Chief is right to caution us

that there may not be connectivity between these events.

I hope he's right, but I fear he's wrong.

I fear it might be Russia.

I remember years ago, dealing with Russia at the Foreign Office

when they wanted to invade Georgia.

They had a series of false flags.

They had a cyber and ransomware attack on Estonia.

And there's elements of that in what we're hearing today.

Do you confidently know that these patterns of activities

are from Russia?

Could they be from another hostile foreign agent?

In the past, Islamist terrorist groups have recced air bases

and the like.

The ransomware attack, again, very difficult to be definitive.

Could be the Russian state, North Korea,

or indeed the Chinese state.

So I think we need to keep a bit of an open mind on that.

What we need is a clear picture of the nature of this attack

that may lead us better to understand where it's come from.

Time is of the essence.

WOMAN: Live feed on that, we'll let you know any updates...

We can find that out for you, and we can figure out what is going on...

OK. That's gonna need to be flashed through.

(LOW OVERLAPPING CHATTER)

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

GEN. RICHARDS: Prime Minister, there's a Russian vessel.

It's called the Orlan.

It's in our territorial waters in and around the Orkneys,

north of Scotland.

This is a suspected Russian spy ship clad as a research vessel.

Its function is to locate and, if necessary, damage things

like undersea cables that carry the UK's internet,

phone and financial data traffic.

There are, I think, of the order of 64 cables

that power the United Kingdom.

If they were to cut those cables, it turns daily life off.

We've been tracking this vessel for three days already,

but right now, this Russian spy ship is over a set of cables.

But this is nothing new.

Russia has been carrying out these sorts of operations

for some years in our waters.

So I think keep a slightly open mind on whether this is

a routine wrecking operation or whether it's something more serious.

There's no excuse for them being that close to our cables.

There just isn't.

The Orlan is under the surveillance from

the Royal Navy Frigate HMS Loughborough.

We must divert this Russian vessel out of UK waters.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC) (PHONES RING)

TOM SHARPE: Tell the Loughborough to launch her Merlin

and maintain visual contact with the Orlan now.

Visuals from the Loughborough, and Merlin's lifting.

This is British warship HMS Loughborough.

You're currently in the United Kingdom's territorial waters.

Your behaviour is not consistent with innocent passage.

You're required to turn away immediately.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

So, Prime Minister, I now understand that HMS Loughborough

has issued a warning, but the Orlan is maintaining its course.

We'll keep hailing them, and if required, we will board them.

We need to know what else is out there and what we're dealing with.

Two pilots have been singled out and murdered.

There has been a cyber attack,

and we now have this Russian vessel.

This is the sort of thing that was seen as part of a Russian playbook

on how you would diminish the effectiveness

of UK Defences from within.

Prime Minister, thinking through the facts,

it's rather unusual for all of these things to be going wrong at once,

and therefore there may be something very serious going on.

I just want to exercise a little bit of caution here.

It's really important we start to build up an accurate picture

of how much of this is connected to Russia.

We need more information on the murder of the two pilots.

We need more information on the cyberattack.

My concern is we may not see things

because we are seeing things too quickly.

I agree.

It is appropriate for us to assume the worst-case scenario

and not assume a series of coincidences.

But we need to do that in a careful, not a hot-headed way.

We need to get the evidence that hopefully help de-escalate

rather than escalate this.

If this is Russia, it will escalate.

With your permission, Prime Minister,

I'd like to inform our allies about what we now observe

to be happening in the UK.

There would be nothing worse than activating some of our allies

who we may need in the coming days,

but we've told them things

which subsequently turn out not to be true.

But if we only proceed on the basis of certainty,

we are always going to be behind the...

Yes. ...initiative in the hands of Russia.

There is a strong likelihood, though,

as the Attorney General reminds us, no certainty, that it's Russia.

We need facts.

Get the intel back to this room as quickly as possible.

The Russians have done this in multiple countries.

But not all of it might be the Russians.

I just think if you tell people stuff which subsequently

turns out not to be true, they just don't believe you, right?

We're gonna end up with egg on face. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah. Um, 2524...

(PHONE RINGING) Hello, Government Press Office.

I think for us, in terms of the press team,

I think it's important to manage this news.

We get some statement out quite soon...

Yeah. Yeah. ...that says we've had

a COBR Meeting.

We can say the Prime Minister will address Parliament

in the next, I don't know, hour. That would be good.

OK, great.

COBR has been convened.

The Prime Minister will address Parliament.

Sofia, I thought if you monitor on social media

anything that you think is significant.

(COMPUTERS PINGING)

(GENTLE TENSE MUSIC)

NEWS: I'm Babita Sharma, and this is UK News 24.

Your headlines this hour.

The NHS says two people have died waiting for ambulances

after a suspected cyber attack severely disrupted

Yorkshire Ambulance Services.

In other news, the bodies of two RAF pilots have been found

shot dead outside a pub in Lincolnshire.

Police say investigations are ongoing

and they are unable to offer any information at this time.

And a yellow weather warning is enforced across North East Scotland,

Orkney and Shetland,

with large waves and dangerous sea...

(GENTLE MUSIC)

A new word for a Somerset boy. A malware attack.

Whatever that is.

(GOATS BLEATING)

I'm gonna pay these hackers to find out

why I'm not getting a bloody appointment.

I don't think they'll be able to find out.

Who'd hacked the NHS?

That's just sick, bro. These people are evil.

They need to be locked up. People are dying.

ZOE: We need to wait to hear from the MOD

about what they are prepared to say.

GEN. BARRONS: On the back of these three events,

the question that ministers are confronting,

is this just a bad day or much more likely,

a prelude to more and worse?

The Attorney General is, as you would expect as a lawyer,

very concerned about proceeding on the basis of evidence.

If we only proceed on the basis of what we're certain about,

we'll always be behind the curve. Yeah.

I'll live with the concern and the disquiet,

and what I won't live with is us being caught with our trousers down.

We need to be strong, we need to be resolute,

we need to do what we need to do.

We don't want to let a kind of alpha male mentality

take us down a path that turns out to be counterproductive.

I was just a little bit cautious

that immediately we moved to saying this was an assassination,

this was Russia. It could have been a whole series of things

that could have led to that attack.

It could also be some far-right assassin.

We are dealing with a group of politicians

who are thinking about war for the first time in their lives.

You can understand how hard this is for them.

There's a lot of complexity in conditions of great uncertainty

against the clock,

but we will be doing them a great disservice

if we were helping them to wish away the problem or think that-

that we were on top of it when we know we're not.

What I need to do is to be quite forceful

in putting the actual measures that we need to take,

focus on surveillance and reconnaissance,

particularly around Scotland and into the North Atlantic.

I need to know what the current state of our sea, land, air

and missile defences are.

We've got bugger all, but we'll get a list of exact numbers to you, sir.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

So, sirs...

...what we're seeing here is the entirety of our fleet.

OK. Yeah, we- we've got a huge availability problem here.

We've got six Type 45 warships,

our only anti-ballistic missile defence,

but three are out of action and two are overseas.

Just one is available.

Only three of our five Type 23 warships are available.

We should have six attack submarines,

but four are out of action.

And one aircraft carrier.

And two-thirds of our fighter jets are in routine maintenance.

But it's not much, Tom, is it?

We're very thin here.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

Can you come look? There's a video.

Video from a cargo ship just witnessing...

VIDEO: ..something was going down.

Did anyone else hear about British Navy tracking the Russian vessel?

What's going on?

It's all over social media.

Just more footage.

It's not safe to go in the water.

So that's the Navy ship.

Just keep tabs on what the reaction is, just so we can brief Ayesha.

MAN: Uh, we're getting visuals from the Loughborough now.

I can see the, uh, Orlan is just on the bow of the Loughborough.

They're going through heavy seas at the moment.

RMP is showing Loughborough is tracking the Orlan

just south of the Pentland Skerries Islands,

so we'll just keep you aware of that.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

GOVE: It's a fast-moving picture. Can you bring us up to speed?

Prime Minister, police have arrested a suspect in Liverpool

in connection with the murder of the two RAF pilots.

The suspect is male, 27 years old.

He's a UK national acting as a proxy

for organised crime groups with links to Russia.

Of course.

And from the National Cyber Security Centre,

they've now attributed the malware signature to a ransomware group

linked to the Russian state.

That confirms our fears. Yeah.

What more do we know about Russian thinking?

Do we have anything from our assets in Russia?

I don't think it will come as a surprise.

Their intent seems to be the fact that Britain has been

such a strong supporter of Ukraine.

Background intelligence, since 2022,

Russia's regarded itself as at war with the UK, basically,

and with other NATO allies, as well as Ukraine.

What we have seen so far is a prelude.

We've seen close-quarter assassination.

We've seen the Orlan. We've seen the cyberattack.

These three things are connected.

This is a classic combination of hybrid or grey space activity.

It's war,

but it's war that sits below the threshold of military conflict.

We should assume that is gonna go up a gear.

Our first objective, we need to be thinking about things that we can do

to send a clear message

that if you mess with us, you will regret it.

And that Russia very quickly becomes aware

that we are prepared to do things they do not expect.

The DPM wants to come in.

Is it a specific question about the disposition?

It- it's a question, and it may sound like a very basic question.

But what is the nature of the attack we should be defending

against right now?

Are we talking about military incursion, uh, you know,

bombing from the air,

attacks on our critical national infrastructure?

We cannot defend ourselves against everything.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

(ELECTRONIC BEEPING)

Sirs, we have comms incoming from HMS Loughborough.

Update. The Russian ship, Orlan,

is drifting towards that small rocky outcrop.

Potentially lost power, potentially adrift.

Weather is worsening. We're seeing winds around 4 to 5 knots.

(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS)

(CRASHING)

(BEEPING)

Impact, impact, impact.

Shit!

Listening in on a radio broadcast.

Channel 1-6. Channel 1-6.

The Russian vessel is taking on water with 47 crew on board.

Let's get on to the Coast Guard agencies in the- in the area.

Roger. Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Mayday confirmed. We have Captain Chapman of the Loughborough.

Stand by.

Two life rafts observed in the water.

Sir, it might not be all the crew.

Orlan's run aground.

GEN. BARRONS: Um... Prime Minister,

the Russian vessel, Orlan, has struck rocks.

There are allegedly multiple bodies in the water.

HMS Loughborough, it has a helicopter on board,

is leading a rescue operation.

The commanding officer is reporting that conditions

are extremely difficult.

Given the weather and the number of people in the water,

they are recovering as many as they can.

But we must expect fatalities.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

The human and political consequences of this are difficult to overstate.

Can we make sure that we are now providing medical

and humanitarian assistance to those Russian sailors

whom we have picked up at sea?

Could I just, um, interject?

This story is moving really quickly on social media.

People have actual footage of the sailors

being put onto a British warship.

"Not exactly a normal day at sea."

And they also have footage of bodies in the water.

So this is already into the bloodstream of social media.

It's really important that we get out there

and start sort of framing our own narrative.

If there's a vacuum, they- they'll just start jumping

to their own conclusions.

Prime Minister, I'm- I'm really concerned right now.

I think we have got a significant window of risk

right now where Russia has the potential to brand the UK

as the aggressor... Mm-hmm.

...and it as the victim.

Because we haven't yet fully explained the incidents

we are dealing with.

We have a risk of this, in public opinion terms,

starting to run in the wrong direction.

I agree.

But before we make a statement to the nation,

we need to build up as quickly as possible

the information that makes it clear that this was a tragic accident.

Defence Secretary, what is your reading of the situation?

Is there any likelihood that this was a deliberate act?

Well, look, it could be a ship that was on hostile manoeuvres

and has had an accident,

or it was on hostile manoeuvres and its job was to run ashore.

We should be able to quite quickly gather information

to give us a clue as to which of those is the most likely.

But I think it is very important that we always have

in the back of the mind that they may be up to something else.

We will treat the Russian crew with dignity.

But it is also vital that we have people from the security service,

Russian-speaking there ASAP.

We want to make sure that while they're still in a state

where we can get information out of them, that we do.

I'm a little bit concerned about what you just said.

These are not prisoners of war.

These are people that have been picked up as part of an accident.

And it's really important that the way in which we treat these people

that have been picked up, is understood legally.

Yes.

What is critical, though, is my judgment in this,

given other events,

all the evidence is pointing to the fact that it is going

to be an excuse for a retaliatory attack against the United Kingdom.

So the Russians will just be looking as to how they can exploit this?

There are many examples of that in the public domain already.

And that is what we need to be focused on.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

(NOTIFICATION PINGS)

Ooh, we have a Russian broadcast.

Russian news channel have clips of the sinking.

(RUSSIAN NEWS)

They're not going to like this.

Russian broadcasting had clips of the sinking of Orlan

that we can put up in the room now. OK.

Uh, I've just got a media update.

This is footage that has just been transmitted on Russian TV.

(SPEAKS RUSSIAN)

INTERPRETER: This afternoon Russian officials have disclosed

that a British Type 23 warship

deliberately forced the Russian civilian vessel, Orlan,

off its safe course home, driving it onto rocks.

Dozens are already feared dead.

Senior Russian officials are describing what happened

as a clear humanitarian offense, tantamount to a declaration of war.

Moscow has called on the wider international community

to condemn the United Kingdom's actions.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

The Russians have used this event in order to paint the United Kingdom

to anyone who is prepared to listen to their propaganda

in the worst possible light.

That's a mouthpiece of the Kremlin.

They have accused us of a declaration of war.

The Russians are, of course, putting out masses

of disinformation already.

They are playing the victims in this.

They are actively calling for the international isolation

of the UK, and that is really bad for us.

There will be people in our own country listening to that.

We must say unequivocally that the Loughborough did not,

in any way, attack this Russian ship.

So much of modern warfare is the information war,

and it is who tells their story the best.

And right now, being really honest, I think we're just not properly

on the pitch, and we've got to get there.

We are very, very close to the public asking,

"Where the hell is our government? Who is in charge of this situation?"

The urgency of action is clear.

It is important that we make sure that we have our story

absolutely straight.

So Ayesha's team will be working on that.

Can we please communicate clearly the reality of the situation?

So, the Prime Minister has asked us to get out there

and start framing this Russian ship's story.

Yeah, I'm drafting the press statement right now.

I don't personally, if we need to say,

we need to urge the public to remain calm...

OK. ...and it would just be

really factual. It's really important to say

that we did not sink that ship.

OK, the government is aware of footage circulating on social media,

appearing to show a vessel sinking in British waters.

The UK government categorically denies any involvement

in the sinking of the vessel and we urge the public

not to share unverified information.

The Deputy Prime Minister will update Parliament later today

and will confirm timing shortly.

(SOFT DRAMATIC MUSIC)

Oh, I feel good, man.

This is my fastest PB I've ever done outside.

Still trying to walk. You get up and go in about two hours.

Is anybody not realising what's happening?

It's a spy ship, probably a warship, probably armed.

It's very hard to know what to believe.

Russia said that they were forced onto the rocks.

The UK government's obviously saying they wasn't forced onto the rocks.

Either way, one of you's lying.

RADIO: Hello and welcome to DefenceCast.

I'm joined today by UK defence and security expert Ange Mukherjee.

Hi, Tom. So, Ange, people are saying

that Russia is spinning the sinking of this Orlan vessel,

presenting the UK as the aggressors. So, what's going on here?

OK. The Kremlin has been ramping up anti-British rhetoric for years.

Officials have described us as enemy number one,

not just for our support for Ukraine,

but also because we're a key member of NATO

that's been willing to call out and push back

against Russian aggression.

Russian state television paints us as the big bad wolf.

And this sinking could be the perfect chance for a false flag

that'll make their lies seem real.

Well, it's all very worrying and we'll be watching with bated breath.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

Colleagues, we must move on to how the Russians might choose

to escalate this. They have created a pretext

for further escalation, and we know that this fits their playbook.

If Russia sees or can describe that we sunk a ship,

that may be the excuse that they need

to go above the threshold into military activity.

OK, we have a window now to deter any future escalation.

We have to move the dial on this now,

and this is why the diplomatic effort is so important.

I think we should seriously consider sending a private message

to the Kremlin, setting out what's happened.

Yes, I think that a Foreign Secretary

should seek to talk direct to the Kremlin itself.

OK, thank you.

Just looking forward to communications...

Right, they're not kilos, let's find out what they are.

(PHONE RINGING)

Hello, Zoe speaking. OK, we'll keep an eye on that.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

OK.

(PHONE RINGING)

I'm glad we found a chance to talk,

because clearly there is an escalating problem

between our two nations.

Neither of us wants to escalate this situation to the point

where it becomes irreversible.

I would rather we came to an agreement

that didn't lead to war between our two great nations.

Your vessel, which you claim is a civilian vessel,

deliberately entered our territorial water

and ran aground.

You will have seen that it was the Royal Navy

who was rescuing Russian citizens.

International law would suggest your ship should not be in

our territorial waters. We did not sink your ship.

You should be absolutely certain that the United Kingdom

and our allies will remain resolute

in defending our way of life.

(HANGS UP PHONE) (LINE DISCONNECTS)

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

Prime Minister, it's clear that the Russians are locked into

a trajectory.

The only concession they're willing to make to us

is if we acknowledge that the captain of the Loughborough

acted outside the chain of command

and deliberately targeted their vessel.

They have said that they will see non-compliance in itself

as an act of aggression that will require a response.

Prime Minister, I wish I could bring you happier news,

but it's a reflection of where we are with the Russians.

We're certainly not going to say that a Royal Navy captain

was operating in a rogue manner

and undermined the operations of the Navy and our armed forces

when they are protecting us.

In my judgment,

it's clear, since we're not going to accept these terms,

Russia is setting the conditions for military strikes.

If Russia is minded to mount some sort of campaign against the UK,

then we need to be ready to defend against that.

So the sorts of ballistic cruise missiles and drones

that you see falling on Kyiv could fall on the UK.

And so we've put together a picture of the assets that we have,

but they're relatively small.

I need you all to understand how thinly resourced we are

as a nation here.

CDS is absolutely right.

I have long raised the issue of the lack of resources we have

in terms of defence.

I'm gonna keep this really simple.

On current projections, in a war with Russia,

we've got about two weeks' fight.

We've got to do as much as we can with diplomacy,

because it's better to be talking than fighting.

In that case, we need rapidly to ascertain

which of our allies might come to our defence?

We have enough evidence to say that we could well have

a retaliatory attack.

It would be very useful to have spoken to the United States.

Foreign Secretary, can I ask that you coordinate a call

with the US Secretary of State? OK.

Thank you, Jim.

(GENTLE TENSE MUSIC)

RADIO: Welcome to DefenceCast.

So, worst-case scenario, Ange, if things were to escalate

into a conflict with Russia, how prepared are we?

Well, Tom, we've not really prioritised our ability to fight

a major conflict since the end of the Cold War.

Successive governments took the peace dividend.

They cut defence spending.

Post 9-11, the focus was counter-terrorism.

So right now, we don't have the capacity to sustain a fight.

Remember last year how the Defence Secretary resigned over...

Normally I would just ignore the news when I'm away, but...

it's getting a bit serious.

That's the last thing we want.

The last couple of years, all what's been going on with, uh...

in this country, we want it nice and calm, really.

I'm not being funny. I don't want to deal with it.

Hello, Secretary of State. Great to see you again.

Thank you for making time.

I'm obviously here to listen on behalf of the president.

You'll be aware that the United Kingdom has had

a Russian vessel enter our territorial waters.

It has hit some rocks, and sadly, there's been loss of life.

The Russians are alleging that we have provoked them

into an escalation of war.

This, as you know,

is part of a regular Russian pattern of behaviour,

a series of false flags and provocations.

I will tell you that the president appreciates all that.

I should also be upfront with you to let you know,

I have already talked to the Kremlin...

...and obviously their story is somewhat different.

You've already spoken with Russia?

And, you know, the president is partial to the Russian president.

Russia is clearly the aggressor.

If the shoe was on the other foot,

we would rally to the United States defence.

I think we need to let more facts unfold.

And so, it's really our intent to try to be neutral here.

I'm not sure how our closest ally on the planet

at a time of our need can say that it wishes to stay neutral.

Well, listen, we're in a neutral position

for a number of different reasons,

but I think the President of the United States

is trying to send a message: let this European issue

be one that's resolved by the Europeans.

I do have to go. I've got another meeting pending.

But let's keep an open line of communication.

We'll speak again soon.

OK. All... Thank you.

All the best. All the best.

Fuck.

Is it the Attorney General has said...

We haven't got that as yet, so we can give you that information

when we get it... OK.

It's really important we get the surviving Russian sailors

off the Loughborough. Yes, confirmed.

All remaining individuals from the Orlan

have been collected by the Coast Guard.

OK. Let's keep an eye on the vicinity of the Loughborough.

We've just got the undersea sensors in the Southern Norwegian Sea.

Nothing seen on the radar.

Any changes on here, we'll let you know.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

Prime Minister, we have a very, very serious problem.

The US Secretary of State had already spoken

to my opposite number in the Kremlin.

The Secretary of State said that they will remain neutral.

He spoke to the Kremlin first, before us.

Hmm.

That positioning from the US is the most telling symbol

of where we are at.

Well, that leaves the United Kingdom in a very difficult position.

And to have such a stark response is chilling.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC)

Got two spikes undersea sensors.

Sirs, you're gonna want to have a look at the sensors over here.

OK. This could be anything.

But what we want to do is get a P-8 aircraft airborne

and hunting it. Yep.

Lossiemouth, this is Watch Keeper.

Request P-8 aircraft to conduct area search and track.

What could the spikes be?

It's, it's- It could be marine noise, but it...

You know, it could be a spike from a nuclear submarine.

The issue now is Russia has decided to use this as a pretext

for isolating and very likely damaging the UK.

Having assured that the US is keeping out of the way.

This is a moment of great jeopardy.

I doubt I need to remind this room, but in a war with Russia,

there's no safety net, there are no guarantees,

there's no script.

If the might of the Russian military is focused on the UK

and we're on our own,

their ability to hurt us is considerably greater

than our ability to hurt them.

(LOW, TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES)

Sirs?

We have what looks like projectiles in the direction

of the Loughborough. 2,500 metres and enclosing.

Do we know what speed that contact's doing?

Not yet, sir. But it looks as though there's two of them.

Right, well, I mean, that looks like a torpedo.

Loughborough's moving. Is Loughborough taking action?

What's going on?

Significant sharp turning from the live feed from the bow.

OK, Loughborough taking evasive action.

Torpedo at 6591, and it's at 2,000 metres.

And we have a second one. It's at 2,500.

They're heading towards the Loughborough.

OK.

TDS.

It looks like the Loughborough's been fired out with two torpedoes.

We got a whiff of a submarine in the South Norwegian Sea.

Now it looks like we've got two torpedoes

heading towards the Loughborough.

How many people do we have on that ship?

So, the crew of that ship will be about 200.

There are some images coming through.

So that is our frigate? This is the Loughborough.

Second torpedo, 1,000 metres. 1,000 metres, yeah.

(TENSE, DRAMATIC MUSIC)

You've got the live feed? I've got the live feed.

No change to live feed at the moment.

OK.

I'm afraid to say it, that might be the quickest way

to know whether or not they get struck.

Yeah, of course.

(EXPLOSION) Impact!

Oh, my God!

Signal loss from the Loughborough. Yeah. No pictures.

Prime Minister, this attack on the HMS Loughborough

will have come from a Russian submarine.

We must assume the loss of that ship,

and there will have been casualties.

This is unequivocally an act of war.

(TENSE MUSIC BUILDS)

British sailors are dead. We have to strike back ASAP.

Sink the submarine, do it now.

No, no, doing nothing isn't an option.

There is a penalty to this kind of behaviour.

Nothing is off the table.

The largest loss of British military life

in a single day since the Second World War.

The President of the United States is furious.

The President of the United States has posted.

This isn't good. We're standing alone.

Our nation is under attack.

Oh my God, run!

Impact! impact!

(EXPLOSION) (PANICKED CRIES)

Subtitles by Sky Access Services www.skyaccessibility.sky