The UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has developed a tabletop wargame based on the 2021 confrontation between the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender and Russian forces near Crimea.
Called “Defending Defender,” the game trains military personnel to manage competing narratives by examining how military actions, public statements, media coverage, and incomplete information shape perceptions during an international crisis.
Dstl developed the game with the Joint Information Activities Group, part of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Academy.
An initial prototype was tested by approximately 1,500 people during military training courses.
The laboratory has now produced a boxed version that can be played without a dedicated facilitator, allowing use outside specialist wargaming courses.
Defending Defender is being distributed within the UK Ministry of Defence, across 15 NATO countries.
The game assigns two to eight participants to teams representing the UK and Russia, each with different objectives and constraints.
Played in three phases over approximately 45 minutes, it requires participants to make decisions under time pressure and assess how their actions and communications may affect the broader crisis.
The exercise also explores unintended consequences and demonstrates how opposing actors may follow different political, military, and information strategies.
Black Sea Incident
The game is based on a June 2021 incident involving the UK Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender during a voyage from Odessa, Ukraine, to Batumi, Georgia.
While passing near Crimea, the ship entered waters claimed by Moscow following Russia’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula but internationally recognized as Ukrainian.
Russia said a patrol vessel fired warning shots and an Su-24 aircraft dropped four bombs along the destroyer’s route, prompting it to leave the area.
London rejected that account, maintaining that HMS Defender was conducting a lawful passage through Ukrainian waters and that no warning shots had been directed at the vessel.
