Original subtitles

This program me contains strong language.

This is the first time going anywhere like the Black Sea.

We know 100% there's going to be

Russian surface-to-air missile systems that will be looking at us,

Russian fighter jets.

We don't know what's going to happen.

That is a Russian fighter jet, a very capable aircraft.

Ancl I can do absolutely nothing about this

if he decides to pull the trigger.

This could be game over for us.

The RAF is on high alert.

We know something is going to happen in the next 24 hours.

Buzzard tower, Typhoon radio check.

There's a potential ISIS safe house.

Everything that's happening with Russia and Ukraine,

it's like a tinder box.

You're doing an important role protecting from Vladi the Baddie.

Here we go.

Whoa. Holy shit.

With conflict in Europe and the Middle East...

...British war planes are poised to face any threat.

You don't want to fire on it and end up starting WWIII.

Have a good clay, thank you.

Ascot 9959, flight cleared for take-off.

Surface wind 2409 knots over on cable up.

Over 2,000 miles from the UK in the Eastern Mediterranean,

Akrotiri is the RAF's busiest front line operational airbase.

Tower, Ascot 995A, ready for departure.

For the next four months,

it's home to nearly 150 members of RAF Coningsby's 11 Squadron.

It's not the best place I've stayed, not the worst by far.

It's a very boring three Weetabix at the minute,

but there's possibly a bacon sandwich when I get to work,

so hopefully that'll make up for it.

I am josh, I'm a Flight Lieutenant in the Air Force.

I'm a Typhoon pilot.

It's always been a fighter pilot thing to have a moustache,

even the Second World War.

My wife said she liked it as well. I think she said it tickles.

HE CHUCKLES

josh is 11 Squadron's youngest pilot.

He only qualified to fly Typhoon a few months ago

and has just arrived in Akrotiri.

So, what we're going to do is make sure

the helmet sits on your head

at the correct distance in terms of your pupils to

the top of the helmet. Are you right eye dominant?

Right eye dominant, yeah.

Just literally look straight ahead,

pick a point and don't move from it.

This is the first time I've actually come away

to go on combat operations.

It is nerve-racking, but it also it's very exciting.

Just proving that I am someone that is competent enough

to actually go and send to war.

I think we need to move your oxygen mask cables up.

RAF Akrotiri, in Cyprus, is a really great strategic location.

To the north we've got Black Sea, Ukraine, Crimea and Russia.

All places that have been plenty in the news recently enough.

The month I started flying the Typhoon was

the same month that Russia invaded Ukraine,

so for the last few years I've been watching

the war unfold on TV

and now suddenly I'm being thrown into the middle of it.

It is quite daunting.

Since the war started in 2022,

the RAF has been gathering intelligence on Putin's forces

from the world's most advanced spy plane, called Rivet joint.

Welcome, mate.

Just thought it would be worth working through the plan,

now it's been approved.

So, the Rivet joint will be taking off from RAF Waddington,

back home in Lincolnshire.

Our job's to meet up with it over the Black Sea

and keep it safe from Russian intercepts.

Josh, and lead pilot, Joe,

have been ordered to fly north to Romania,

and then escort the Rivet joint through

the Black Sea towards the Crimean Peninsula.

Potentially what we might see is

QRA reactions from Crimea or in mainland Russia.

The risk taken by the RJ is really up to them,

so if they need to turn around

because they're feeling threatened,

then we will just effectively be keeping those guys safe.

The Rivet joint's got sensors

and people down the back that are trying

to hoover up all the good signals and things,

comms from the battlefield.

Some of it is secret and some of it goes up

to God knows what levels of secrecy that I'm not privy to.

All I know is it's got a lot of capability,

a lot that I can't talk about,

a lot that I don't know about.

But it's an invaluable asset for us.

This is one of the most dangerous missions flown by the RAF,

and junior pilot josh's, most challenging to date.

NEWS REPORT: In the last few minutes,

the Defence Secretary's been speaking in the Commons

about an incident involving an RAF aircraft and Russian fighter jets.

The Russians regularly try to prevent

the Rivet joint from gathering

intelligence and have even fired at it.

An unarmed RAF Rivet joint on routine patrol over

the Black Sea was interacted

with by two Russian armed SU27 fighter aircraft.

One of the SU27 aircraft released a missile

in the vicinity of the RAF Rivet joint.

Out briefing Havoc, please. I have you as Havoc pair,

9950, voyager as Kayak. Air threat remains moderate.

Likely Russian intent for shooting you guys down. Any questions?

No. Good.

This is the first time certainly going anywhere like the Black Sea.

We don't know what's going to happen.

We are there for one thing. We are to keep them safe.

We know 100% there's going to be

Russian surface-to-air missile systems that will be looking at us,

Russian fighter jets in combat air patrol,

potentially launching to come and intercept us.

The first part of the mission is to join up with the spy plane.

We need to set our speed to just under 500mph.

It's important we sync up our arrival times precisely

so that we can meet up with the Rivet joint over Romania.

For me, I mean, it's a culmination of effectively my life's dream.

When I was younger, I wanted to be a train driver

and then when I learned about aeroplanes that swiftly changed.

That and going to Farnborough Airshow every year with my clad.

To actually finally be getting to do the job that I joined up to do

is a good feeling.

High over the Romanian coast,

josh has just rendezvoused with the Rivet joint spy plane.

Flying in formation, the Rivet joint

and the Typhoons begin their Black Sea mission

to secure vital military intelligence on Russian forces.

On these sorts of missions,

especially when you see the Rivet Joint flying in front of you,

you feel a bit of responsibility for protecting

the life of the people on board.

You have that responsibility that you are representing,

not just the UK and the RAF,

but all of NATO and Western Europe as well.

The Rivet joint is effectively an electronics hoover,

sucking up any signals or intelligence.

Full of about 30 RAF personnel.

The Russians are transmitting a message to all three RAF planes.

I hear a message like that, a threat,

it's a strange feeling because they are a hostile nation.

It could just escalate

beyond the point that's worth even thinking about.

Good morning, cleared for take-off, surface wind speed 17011.

Morning, thank you.

You're going away for the summer, aren't you?

Is it Costa Rica or something?

I wish. No? Who's off to Costa Rica in the summer?

I thought you said you were?

I'm off to the Lakes.

THEY CHUCKLE

Surface wind 26019.

This is RAF Coningsby.

One of the primary main operating bases for the Royal Air Force.

Home to around 3,000 people,

RAF Coningsby is the busiest front line airbase in England.

Typhoon 308 ready for departure.

Cleared take-off, Typhoon 308.

The whole of the Typhoon fleet is nearly 140 aircraft.

And, at any one time,

there's probably 60 or 70

of those will be here at Coningsby.

I'm Billy Cooper, and I'm the Commander Air Wing, Typhoon.

As we know, the world is in an increasingly unstable place,

the big challenges are making sure that we are ready

to face whatever is demanded of us next.

Billy is the head of the RAF's Typhoon force,

in charge of every pilot and every mission they fly.

I've always been concerned about security of the nation.

But in more recent years, particularly in all of

the Russian aggression that we're seeing in Eastern Europe...

...it's very clear to me that the Royal Air Force has

an incredibly important role to play in that.

Please have a seat.

We absolutely have to be better than the enemy.

Good morning everybody, it's a very busy time.

After things becoming even more agitated around the Black Sea,

our upcoming deployment is even more crucial at the moment.

Some sorties we've been flying from Akrotiri over

the last year or so have been very successful,

but it's going to be even more key basing aircraft out of Romania.

In just a few days' time, Billy's sending six jets

and 200 RAF personnel on Operation Biloxi,

a mission to counter Russian aggression in the Black Sea.

It won't be lost on any of you the importance of the deployment.

It's a very strong and robust deterrence posture towards Russia,

because we are literally deploying to

the closest NATO base to what is the front line of

the war in Ukraine at the moment.

I worry increasingly about how dangerous the world is

and what difficult decisions I'm going to have

to make as a commander as we get closer to a far more broken world.

Just make sure that your people are in the right frame of mind

for what could be some very testing times ahead.

You can imagine Russia shooting down NATO jets,

there's probably no coming back from that.

In spite of the Russian radio message,

new Typhoon pilot josh, and lead pilotjoe,

must continue their mission...

...escorting the world's most advanced spy plane, Rivet joint,

as it gathers Russian military intelligence.

Ajet has been spotted coming out of Crimea.

Josh is sent ahead to find out what it is.

We're now just hawking all of our sensors, our radar,

anything over the radio listening out.

It's a Russian fighter jet,

the same type which opened fire at the Rivet joint in 2022.

The Rivet joint's got 20 or 30 people on it who have all got families.

They don't have parachutes. They haven't got an ejection seat.

If something goes wrong

with that jet or God forbid if it gets hit, then they're going down.

Josh and lead pilotjoe decide to fly in between

the Russian and the Rivet joint to shield it from being attacked.

Having a Russian fight jet fully armed is probably about

the most vulnerable I have ever been in the aircraft.

You don't want to do anything that could trigger a reaction.

Whether that be turning a little bit towards them to try

and get them on the radar scope.

That could be seen as a hostile act.

The risk of any miscalculation could be massive.

The Russian jet is closing in on Josh's tail.

I'm sat there, when I have a bit of a moment of realisation, I'm like,

"That is a Russian fighter jet."

A very capable aircraft

probably with his radar locked on me, if not something else.

You don't want to be the person that misconstrues what

a Russian jet's clone,

you don't want to be the wingman that is the cause of all doom.

The RAF has reached their target location,

off the coast of Crimea,

and the Rivet joint has completed its mission.

Just got to hold our nerve now,

hoping that that Russian jet doesn't follow us.

The Russian fighter is heading back to base.

Heading further west, we're now heading back away from Crimea.

Effectively, we're getting out of range

of anything that they would care about.

They know that we're not a threat any more,

so we've left their sphere of interest.

So once the tactical portion of the mission was over,

the Rivet joint peeled off to head back home to Waddington.

It sounded like they managed to get all of their mission sets done,

whatever those were.

So, they left happy, which was great.

The Rivet joint will analyse

the intelligence it collected when back in the UK,

before being shared with Britain's allies.

That felt super rewarding

for me in that I'd gone from two clays ago not having

a clue about that mission,

to getting it clone right first time, on time.

Being intercepted by a Russian jet and keeping

the Rivet joint safe, which is what we are there for, right?

We scared them off and kept them at arm's length, which was great.

Good on you, buddy. Sick. Well done.

Yeah, yeah. ran on rails, didn't it, time wise?

Smiles on faces says it was worthwhile.

Yeah, excellent. Really, really good.

So, have you seen if you go up round here that it's the French compound?

Ancl then obviously you've got the Americans over here.

Yes, In their tents? It'll be a long nine months there.

Yeah.

80 miles from the Ukrainian border,

MK Airbase will soon be Nato's biggest European military camp.

With the invasion of Ukraine,

there's a lot of tension around this part of the world.

I amjenni, I'm a Squadron Leader,

and my post out here is Chief of Staff.

It's probably one of the busiest roles,

and it's also one of the most unpredictable.

200 RAF personnel have just arrived on Operation Biloxi,

Nato's mission to protect Eastern Europe from Russian aggression.

Yeah, I think that'd be good,

like, this is like a massive space that we're not really using.

Jenni's first job is to check

the new British accommodation is fit for purpose.

Is the welfare suite up and running now, completely?

It is. OK, brilliant.

As chief of staff, it's important that you have

a sense of what's going on around the camp cos this is people living

and working, all in a very small area.

These are all male blocks now, yes?

Yeah. OK.

This is a very young detachment.

There's a lot of people that have never deployed before,

and they're still quite junior in their careers.

So, I refer to myself as Mum out here in Romania.

So, we have had a few leaks here,

and I don't think it's draining quick enough from the showers.

Right, 0|

But also shower curtain inside?

Honestly, as if you think you have to teach people how to take a shower.

anyway-

We'll have to keep an eye on it.

Sometimes it's easy to forget,

when there are a lot of distractions on camp,

of how close we are to Ukraine.

But you only have to watch the news to understand there's some pretty

horrific things happening not that far away from where we are.

As the team in Romania focus on Ukraine,

events unfolding elsewhere could drag them into a new war.

Iranian State Media says a suspected Israeli strike has destroyed

an Iranian embassy building in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

NEWS REPORT: Its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini,

says Israel must be punished but how will it do so,

and can it avoid plunging the Middle East into all-out war.

With Israel under threat,

RAF Typhoons in Romania could be ordered to step in and defend.

Good morning. I mean, we know why we've got to chat.

There's an awful lot going on in the Middle East at

the moment, huge instability.

I think the rhetoric from Iran is very clear

and we know something is almost certainly

going to happen, probably in the next 24 hours.

NEWS REPORTER: Good morning, tension is rising across

the Middle East as Israel braces for an attack from Iran.

RAF personnel in Romania have been called into

an urgent meeting over escalations in the Middle East.

There's a risk that we're inevitably drawn into something much bigger

than it is now.

How ready are you to move people and jets?

Yeah, we're ready to go if we need to.

We've got four jets, we don't need a tanker.

We can just get airborne

and then pretty much direct transit into Cyprus.

To defend Israel from the threat of an Iranian attack,

the RAF is moving jets from Romania to Akrotiri,

its nearest airbase to the Middle East.

Brilliant, thanks, Leasky, good luck.

Brilliant. Thanks very much.

Thank you.

So, I mean, we really are on hour by hour,

just waiting to see what world events unfold.

This could be something that changes

the course of history for the next 50 years.

Thanks, buddy. Cheers.

Ancl let's not beat about the bush,

we also know that there are actors involved in this crisis at

the moment that have nuclear weapons.

Scramble.

HOOTER BLOWS

The jets will arrive in Cyprus in less than two hours...

You have clearance for a 3:06 departure, runway three.

...with those left behind in Romania, waiting for Iran to make its move.

NEWS REPORT: The situation in Israel remains very, very tense.

We expect that retaliation from Iran to happen in

the next 24 to 48 hours.

NEWS REPORT: It could involve more than 100 drones

as well as dozens of cruise missiles and potentially ballistic missiles.

Whenever there's something that happens on the news,

when you're away, I think your family are always

going to immediately worry.

But you don't know what's going to happen yet.

CHILD SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY OVER PHONE

Uh! Did you get star of the week?

This is the first time I've deployed since I've had Olivia,

and it does feel different.

It really does.

What does that say?

"For being a super class role model."

She got star of the week at school this week,

which you know, in the grand scheme of things,

with everything going on out here, is it a big deal?

No. But to her, in her little five-year-old world right now,

that's massive. And I wasn't there.

Oh, sweetheart, that is incredible. Super proud of you.

You kind of put it to one side during the clay.

You've sort of got your game face on a little bit,

and you're just busy, and there's a lot going on.

But, yeah, I don't mind admitting,

sit and get a little bit emotional afterwards.

Right, you have a brilliant clay, darling.

I'll speak to you soon, OK?

It is a sacrifice that you have to make.

But then when you come away,

and indirectly you are having a positive impact.

All right, baby, I love you.

It kind of validates it a little bit,

you're like, "Well, we are doing this for a reason."

Aw, babe, love you.

Aw...

Ascot 996 roger,

continuing Akrotiri Tower 130.075.

Clear with Akrotiri Tower, Ascot 996.

The jets from Romania have just arrived at RAF Akrotiri.

Bring it a bit towards me a little, just a tiny bit, Biff.

The jets are so noisy,

and my coveralls just constantly smell of it.

It's like, you know, Eau de Fuel, eau de toilette same thing.

But literally with our own aftershave

which is just a fuel smell.

I'm an AS1 technician in the Air Force.

Anything you'd think that goes bang on the aircraft,

so explosiveness, is what we would touch.

23-year-old weapons engineer Rhyun

is halfway through a four-month deployment to Cyprus.

Keep coming, Biff.

Yeah, that's it, cool for that.

In readiness for any Iranian attack,

his job is to arm the fleet of £80 million Typhoons,

with state-of-the-art bombs and missiles.

So, starting from the tips,

we have the ASRAM air-to-air short range missile.

Ancl then moving in, you've got the Brimstone launcher.

There's your air-to-ground bombs.

You see it on the news all the time with

the bombs that are hitting the ground,

these are the ones that are going off.

It's a very, very scary time at the moment.

You've got countries kicking off with other countries.

God knows what could happen.

SIREN SOUNDS

BEN BROWN: Breaking news,

in a major escalation of the crisis in the Middle East,

Iran has started a direct attack on Israel

by launching dozens of drones to attack targets there.

They're expected to reach Israel in the next couple of hours.

In response to Iran's attack,

two RAF jets at Akrotiri are immediately launching.

The mission - to join US forces and destroy Iranian missiles

and drones before they hit Israel.

Ahead of take-off,

Rhyun and the team must activate the jet's weapons.

So, he's got the wands and he'll mark the jet onto the spot,

and I'll walk into there, and I'll take the pins out.

Show the pilots, you've got two pins, and that's us good.

Pulling out them pins is the final step.

The engine's running.

The pilot will put his hands up in the cockpit,

ancl that's basically showing that he can't touch anything,

because literally the one smallest flick of that switch,

it's game over.

You're then going underneath that aircraft.

Your head is literally right next to the missiles.

You then walk out the jet, show him the two pins,

and then he can just carry on what he does.

You know that you are working with something pretty cool.

So, you get to give the story

to my mates back home when I go back. It's decent.

We're not entirely sure where they actually go

cos obviously it's secret, but you know when it goes like that,

it's all good, you can't go wrong. Can't go wrong.

Israel is under attack,

Iran launching hundreds of missiles and drones at the country,

streaking westwards across the region.

REPORTER: Tonight, wide scale attack by Iran is a major escalation.

TRANSLATION:

REPORTER: The entire Middle East now is on high alert.

Over 60 American jets have assembled above Jordan

and Western Iraq.

Joining them to intercept

the Iranian missiles are the RAF Typhoons.

For reasons of national security,

the identity of the pilots has been protected.

I've never clone anything like this before.

Anything could happen in the next two minutes.

The scale of the Iranian attack is becoming clear.

On arriving into the area,

the first thing I can see is tactical ballistic missiles.

One way attack drones, cruise missiles.

They are bright flashes

and streaks that go high up into the sky

and they go several hundreds of thousands of feet.

REPORTER: Iran has started an airborne attack against Israel,

launching over 200 drones as part

of what it calls Operation True Promise.

REPORTER: The UK has said that

the British Royal Air Force will intercept any airborne attacks.

Two RAF pilots, alongside the US fleet,

are intercepting Iran's massive drone and missile attack on Israel.

We absolutely have to think through all the threats,

exactly what we're going to do to mitigate them.

This is the first time the RAF has ever been tasked

to intercept an attack like this.

The missiles and drones are travelling at low altitude

towards their targets,

with the Typhoons flying above, to prevent an accidental collision.

It's always important to be on your A-game.

We've got some amazing capabilities,

but things can go against you quite quickly.

Oh, my God, there are TBM's everywhere.

We've not seen activity like this before.

And, actually, there's a lot at stake.

Over 3,000 miles away, Typhoon boss Billy Cooper

reviews footage of the events unfolding.

The video you're seeing on your screen

is Iranian drones actually flying over

Iraqi territory, on their way to Israel.

So, there are American formations up at the front

closest to Iran.

Our people are just behind them -

and will shoot whatever the Americans miss.

I cannot overstate how crucial this is that we get this right.

The RAF pilots over Iraq are beginning to see a pattern

to the drones and missiles.

I'm using all my sensors and equipment on board,

trying to figure out how to intercept these drones

being fired from Iran.

You don't want to be responsible for allowing something

to get through your area of responsibility.

Many lives could potentially be at stake.

I have a duty to try and protect civilian life.

They're coming through in groups every 30 seconds.

So, very useful for us to establish that pattern.

So, the pilots will be able to position themselves

so they can shoot down the next wave coming through.

It's really building.

This is definitely the most challenging moment for them.

There's a lot of aircraft and drones there.

They absolutely need to make sure they avoid each other

as they position to take the shots.

It can be a lot of pressure.

Real time decisions need to be made at cockpit.

We just want to do our best

to prevent anything bad from happening.

So, they're in the right position.

They should be firing any minute now.

They only have so many missiles,

so they need to be very careful about taking the right shot.

Each jet is carrying state-of-the-art ASRAM

air-to-air missiles to take out the drones.

They've launched, missiles are in the air.

Oh, man. That's one down.

After you've actually pulled that trigger

and you see the target blow up, that is a relief.

Rather than the missile disappear off into the night

and you not know where it's gone.

There's two more low drones coming through.

They're going to have to work quickly

to get into the right position.

They don't have many missiles left.

They're going to really have to make these count.

The RAF pilots have just one missile left.

When you're tasked to conduct a mission like this,

you're aware that the stakes are as high as it gets.

So, when you do get the job clone, it's a really great feeling.

What a night.

The world is a safer place as we go to bed.

The RAF pilots have successfully shot down three Iranian drones,

and begin heading back to Akrotiri.

It feels quite strange,

it's almost awesome in a way,

but with a hint of terrifying as well.

What is the follow on, what's next from this?

Any mitigation to the damage

to Israel or potential loss of civilian life

means less destabilisation in the region,

which is ultimately what we are trying to achieve.

TRANSLATION:

You know the jets come back

and then you see it taxiing in

and it's got nothing on there.

Ancl you think, "Wow, this is something you've loaded.

"You physically touched it and it's now not there."

I understand obviously as an armourer,

we fit things that can hurt people.

At the end of the clay, we're looking after people,

our loved ones back home, and our family and our friends.

I don't really let it get to me

because you know that it's been put through so much scrutiny

before it even gets clone.

It's not just a rash plan to say, you know,

"We're going to fire one off."

There's a lot of meaning behind it.

Ancl there's a necessity for it to have gone off.

It is a rewarding feeling

because you know you've clone your job properly.

The training you've been put through has been used

to the right, right ways.

And, yeah, you know that it's the right thing you're doing.

Ancl that's why I joined the military - to support that.

Ancl I understand other people have got conflicting feelings,

but we're doing this for the right reasons.

Iran's first direct attack on Israel

was full of sound and fury,

bringing the Middle East to the moment of maximum danger

many predicted.

Back in Romania,

news is breaking about the attack from Iran

and the RAF's involvement.

NEWS REPORT: The campaign is not over yet.

We need to remain prepared.

Morning, boss. Oh, that's very kind.

You seen the news this morning, then?

Is that why you're in so early? Yeah, just looking now.

I can confirm that our planes did shoot down

a number of Iranian attack drones. Oh, wow!

There was a palpable sense of tension around the camp

because we knew something was going on

and nobody knew the detail.

So, it's interesting that they're talking hundreds of drones.

Limited damage. So, there was...

Yeah. 99% shot down, it doesn't sound like many have got through.

No. So, it's funny, isn't it?

We just came out here to do NATO air policing.

Ancl then who'd have thought this was around the corner?

It's mad, isn't it?

There's always a sense of ambiguity of what comes next, I think.

So, yeah, there's definitely,

there's definitely a lot of unknowns at the moment.

I guess it'll be interesting over the next 24 to 48 hours

to see what happens next.

It's definitely a more tense time.

The world does feel a little bit edgy,

but I was really bloody proud of the fact

that we had played a small part in it.

Genuinely, that is suspicious.

All wearing traditional dress.

A Reaper spy drone flown from

RAF Waddington hunts down ISIS terrorists in Iraq.

This is a high probability of him being affiliated to ISIS.

We need to be able to switch from

that intelligence-gathering mindset into that

"let's put a weapon down" strike mindset rapidly.

And 11 Squadron are ordered

to destroy Houthi missile sites in Yemen.

The intelligence analysis has identified two target locations

for us which are housing long-range drones.

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