A British F-35 pilot based in Cyprus has become the first Royal Air Force pilot to destroy a target in combat, shooting down two Iranian-made Shahed drones over Jordan on Monday night. The pilot, a squadron tactics instructor who has not been named, was flying alongside two Typhoons when radar detected the drones. He engaged them with two Asraam missiles.
The pilot described the operation as high stakes, noting the risk of accidentally hitting friendly assets from the US and Israel operating in the area. 'There's a lot of assets from America, from Israel that are going to and from area of operations. So I'm a little bit more concerned about identifying it first before taking any shots,' he said. He emphasised the importance of positive identification before engaging.
After the successful engagement, the pilot said there was no immediate celebration. 'You are kind of more concerned about making sure you've shot the right thing. Making sure you positioned the aircraft in the right places. It's not a euphoric sense of success. I just get out the way and get back on to doing the job again.'
The drones were intercepted as part of a wider regional retaliation following US-Israeli strikes on Iran. The pilot was flying from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, which had been hit by a drone the previous night. Military officials believe that drone, which evaded defence systems due to its small size and low speed, was likely deployed by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon towards a hangar housing US spy planes.
The pilot noted that the drones he shot down were 'very different' from the one that struck the base, suggesting they may have been launched by a different adversary. He also highlighted the challenge of detecting such small, slow-moving targets. 'Because they're so small and difficult to detect, we don't know if there's any more out there,' he said.
After returning to base in the early hours, the pilot and his colleagues shared a single bottle of Keo, a local Cypriot beer, before he went to bed as he was on duty the next day. 'We have one beer at sunrise and then I had to go to bed because I was on duty the next day. We're kind of a pretty high operational temp at the moment. So when this is all over whenever it ends and then I'm sure we'll celebrate appropriately,' he said.
