Nocturnal 
A decommissioned US Navy frigate has been blown apart by a missile and sent to the bottom of the sea off the coast of Scotland, in a dramatic live-fire military exercise involving both American and British forces.
The USS Klakring was struck by a missile fired from the USS Paul Ignatius during the drill, which took place at the Ministry of Defence’s Hebrides range. Royal Navy surface vessels and aircraft also took part alongside the two American ships, as first reported by STV News and confirmed by the Herald.
Footage shared by the US Naval Forces on social media showed the moment the frigate was torn apart before sinking beneath the waves. The whole thing was filmed as part of a wider operation called Atlantic Thunder 2026.
What was the exercise for?
The Klakring’s sinking was billed as the centrepiece of Atlantic Thunder 2026, a joint US-UK military exercise. Officials described it in strikingly technical terms, calling it a “multi-domain exercise designed to validate surface weapon kill chains, build resilient kill webs and deliver strategic messaging through kinetic demonstration”.
In plain English, it’s a live test of how effectively allied forces can track and destroy a target ship using modern missile systems, while also acting as a show of force. The exercise had originally been due to take place back in May but was delayed by around four months before finally going ahead in September.
This isn’t the first time a retired warship has met this fate off the Scottish coast. A similar exercise was carried out in September 2022, when the former USS Boone was sunk near Campbeltown.
The Klakring’s final journey
The USS Klakring was decommissioned back in 2013 and had spent years sitting in storage at the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility. On 12th August, it was towed down the Delaware River to begin its journey across the Atlantic.
The frigate was brought to Campbeltown, where hazardous materials were removed from the vessel before it was towed out to the Hebrides range to be used as the target.
The Herald has pointed out that it remains unclear why an American ship was chosen for the exercise, given there is an ongoing programme to tow decommissioned British frigates to Turkey to be scrapped instead. HMS Northumberland, for example, was towed out of Plymouth for scrapping earlier this month.
Where things stand now
The USS Klakring now rests on the seabed off the Scottish coast following the exercise. Atlantic Thunder 2026 appears to have concluded with the sinking, which was planned as its main event.
The story has proven a hit online, with “stv news” trending as a search term in the UK as people search for more details on the dramatic footage. Neither the Ministry of Defence nor the US Navy has commented further beyond the official description of the exercise’s purpose.
