Exercise Saharan Express - En route south to the South Atlantic, the Type 45 Destroyer DAUNTLESS played a key part in helping to keep the waters off West Africa safe during a major international exercise, joining warships and personnel from ten other nations off Senegal for Exercise Saharan Express aimed at dealing with the enduring threats of people trafficking, piracy, drug smuggling and illegal fishing.   The exercise was lead by French and British navies with the French represented by the helicopter carrier TONNERRE (‘thunder’).        DAUNTLESS was the most modern ship at the exercise and dwarfed the usual run of patrol vessels used by West African nations such as Gambia, Senegal and Morocco to tackle crime off their shores.    In a “Jeremy Clarkson” moment one media commentator described the DAUNTLESS as “She is the size of a cruiser rather than a destroyer, but can still reach up to 30 knots from a standing start in four times her length”.    The DAUNTLESS continues south for what is now termed the “Auriga 12 Deployment”.