USS Gravely, one of the newest destroyers in the US Navy fleet, gets put through its paces in this look at what it takes to make a warship combat-ready. Cameras follow the crew through live-fire training, simulated air and sea attacks, and shipboard fire drills, showing the systems that make Gravely a strike platform: Tomahawk cruise missiles, attack helicopters, and the sensors and weapons crews that have to coordinate under pressure. The film also captures an unscripted moment when a civilian vessel wanders too close during exercises, forcing the crew to react in real time rather than by the book. Interviews with sailors and officers fill in how a ship this complex is actually run day to day, from the engine room to the bridge. The result is less a history of the vessel than a working portrait of a crew rehearsing for combat they hope never comes, built from access to drills the Navy doesn't often let cameras into.