Original subtitles

This prgramme contains strong language

Our orders come from the highest level of government.

We need to strike enemy targets in Yemen.

The enemy has the firepower to shoot us down.

This is a big moment - when you cross over the coast

and you know you're not safe any more.

There's no such thing as a simple mission.

When I press the commit button,

there is a delay until the point of impact.

And that period of time can feel like an eternity.

The RAF is on high alert.

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

Buzzard tower, 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 Vladdie the Baddie.

Come on!

Here we go.

Whoa. Holy shit.

With conflict in Europe and the Middle East...

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

ID'd Russian aircraft.

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

Maintaining 210,

fly to 8.1, circular loiter.

Quite nicely kept, that.

Yeah, a rich person must live there.

Vineyard in the back.

Not a bad gaff at all really, is it?

How much do you reckon that is to buy?

If that was in Cheshire... A couple of mil. Yeah, easy.

Yeah, loads of room for expansion, that.

THEY CHUCKLE

The RAF is gathering intelligence across the Middle East,

using the next generation of aircraft,

the MQ-9 Reaper drone.

It's going to be about 43 degrees centigrade on the ground.

Sunburn weather.

Flying undetected at high altitude,

the drone seeks out hostile forces and can strike with lethal effect.

We're just going to search the wider area,

see if we can see anyone moving around.

Remotely operated,

it's controlled over 3,000 miles away

at RAF Waddington.

Situated in the heart of Lincolnshire,

this is the RAF's main intelligence airbase...

Cleared for take-off, 115.

..and home to the UK's Reaper force.

I always wanted one of those old-school leather flying jackets

and never been able to get one.

But while I was out in Qatar,

I've got this very fetching sort of gilet-style thing.

I think it's cool, I think it's cool.

I think it adds a certain je ne sais quoi.

I used to really enjoy a bit of acting.

I mean, hence the nickname Ollywood.

That and because I look like a slightly shit version

of Rooster from Top Gun 2.

My name's Ollie and I'm a Reaper drone pilot.

13 Squadron is a very, very secretive organisation.

We fly the RAF's only operational drone.

We are flying live operations against enemy forces,

every single day, 24/7, 365.

There's no doubt amongst security officials

around the world -

the threat of ISIS has returned.

For the last few months,

Ollie and the Reaper squadron's focus has been countering

a resurgent ISIS in the Middle East.

Syria remains ridden by chaos, vast ungoverned spaces,

and that's allowed ISIS to rebuild.

Inside 13 Squadron's headquarters,

fresh intelligence on the terror group has just arrived

from Iraq.

Er, right, team,

the aircraft's already in transit on the way up there.

I'm Wing Commander Stu, I'm the boss of the squadron.

The security situation in the Middle East is

a lot more volatile than what it has been.

From the intelligence-led information that we have thus far,

we've got some coordinates of where ISIS may be living.

You're tasked to go and have a look in that area.

Ollie's mission is to fly the Reaper drone

above a region of recent ISIS activity,

to find any trace of ISIS safe houses,

weapon stores or vehicles.

Should the team find any militant,

they can intervene with lethal force.

Brill. Any questions for me?

See you at the step desk.

Cool. Happy days. Let's go.

ISIS, they're very much still a live threat

to the security of the UK.

Reaper is very much at the forefront

of technological advancement.

We bring a lot to the party.

Drones are absolutely part of the battlefield of the future.

Capable of flying on operations around the world,

all of Britain's Reaper drones are controlled from boxes

inside 13 Squadron's hangar.

This is the first time that TV cameras have been allowed

to film live operations with Reaper.

Flying an unmanned aircraft is very different

to a conventional plane.

I am a pilot in the Air Force who does not ever leave the ground.

These are the GCSs. It's essentially a cockpit.

Everyone thinks drones - they're tiny

and you fly them sort of with a Xbox controller.

That's not the case.

The Reaper is 66ft wide -

wider than Typhoon but not quite as long.

Controlled via satellite,

Reaper drones can fly over 18 hours nonstop.

They're equipped with a state-of-the-art camera

to identify targets,

and laser-guided missiles to eliminate them.

The mission is ahead of us.

Entry waypoint is at Creed.

Glide speed at 98, still speed 87.

Baghdad, Assalaamu Alaikum.

When I joined the Air Force, I was 21.

All I wanted to do was fly.

They said that they weren't recruiting any pilots at the time,

but they desperately needed Reaper pilots.

I didn't know what it was, I had no idea.

Engine looks good, no change on the batteries.

But once I did a bit of research, I accepted.

I'd been in for about a year when I first took command

of an operational sortie.

That was intense.

Reaper is not a computer game.

To a lot of people, it is life and death.

We are on task.

Happy days.

The team are above the co-ordinates provided by Iraqi intelligence

and must now survey the ground below for any signs of ISIS.

I think that's fairly obviously a farmer.

Chickens running around.

He doesn't look very nefarious, does he?

If there is something to find, we'll find it, even if it's tiny.

Flying alongside Ollie is camera and sensor operator, Jim...

Speed is 120 knots, maintains 120 knots throughout.

Roger.

..and Melissa, an intelligence analyst.

In this region, we know that, after the defeat of ISIS,

a lot of the smaller ISIS cells have kind of gone to ground,

so gone into hiding.

So, when we do this kind of tasking,

often we're looking for the abnormal.

We're going to search around buildings, etc,

look for any signs of nefarious activity -

weapons systems, large groups of adult males.

The useful thing about drones is that we can loiter

over a single location for a long period of time,

use the camera to build and develop that intelligence picture.

Sometimes we're following the target for months

without them noticing that we're there.

We're starting to see some movement. The... That white, small van.

Ooh, what's going up here?

Ollie and the team have spotted a white pick-up truck,

commonly used by ISIS fighters.

There's no other traffic present in this area that I've seen so far.

Looks like he's pulling into this compound. Yep.

Cos if they're loading or unloading,

then it's probably worth keeping tabs on.

Looks like they're... Looks like they're loading or unloading,

but, annoyingly, it's in the shadows.

Gone are the days where ISIS would drive around

with their big flags on the back

or wearing uniform, openly carrying weapons,

because they don't hold territory like they used to.

Now they are blending in with civilian population.

That's their MO now.

They're far better at remaining undetected.

What does the windscreen look like on those cars? Is it clear or dusty?

The team rely only upon intelligence passed to them,

and Reaper's long-range camera, to decipher what they're seeing.

Windshield looks fine.

Makes me think it's been used fairly recently.

Yeah, there is a mast of some description

on the roof of this building. I've seen.

I'm just trying to figure out what that is,

cos obviously there's been quite a few things on roof tops

that have turned out to be heavy machine guns.

With Jim analysing the roof structure,

another vehicle driving erratically has drawn the team's attention.

This vehicle has pulled out of that road.

We can see right now there's two, at least two, people in there.

And it's heading towards the same compound.

You do get a hunch

for when something doesn't look quite right.

So, it looks like at least four? Four out.

Yeah. At least four, meeting other people.

All wearing traditional dress.

Four adult males crammed into a car, it's hot.

There is definitely something that doesn't sit quite right

about the way they drove up to that building as well. Yeah.

The way the general population behave

and the way members of ISIS behave are not the same.

ISIS have their own way of operating,

they have an intent.

This could certainly be ISIS.

We've got to make sure that we are ready.

It could go flash to bang in a second.

Waddington tower, Waddington tower,

Sapphire request to enter the runway at Foxtrot.

BIRD CALLS

RAF Waddington houses a large range of diverse aircraft.

Good morning, it's Waddington Tower.

We are now open and using runway 2-0.

Keeping them safe round the clock are a team of over 500 ground staff.

I'm AS1 Matt Kidd at RAF Waddington at air traffic control.

Growing up, I wanted to be a football player.

I'd get David Beckham's... all his haircuts -

curtains, the Mohicans, everything.

But eventually, you're like, "Right, I might not be quite good enough."

Today, Air Traffic Control Assistant Matt is being stationed

at the far end of the runway.

We are the last safety barrier for take-off and landing.

So, Matt's going to do something that we call "last look checks".

Checking, making sure there's no leaks coming from the aircraft,

the tyres are inflated.

Make sure there's no smoke coming from the engines.

Hang on, there's birds. Can you see them?

It's always the case when the loud aircraft get overhead.

They all come up from the field.

Obviously an aircraft hits them, obviously it gets in the engine,

obviously it could lead to a crash.

It's obviously extremely important with the risks involved

that we are spot-on every time.

Falcon 8-4, negative gear. MAN SPEAKS OVER RADIO

Matt has spotted a jet approaching the runway.

Falcon 8-4, negative gear.

Whose landing gear isn't in the correct position.

So, he's not acknowledging that, so...

Fired red pyro.

So, when you fire the pyros, it is an adrenaline rush.

The pilot corrects the issue...

Caravan.

..before coming into land.

And there he is, landed. Happy days, mate. Well done.

Thank you.

Away from the airfield,

Matt is expecting an arrival of a different kind.

Right, shall we build this, Geri? Yep.

Flat packing is my job.

Well, I read the instructions.

Geri is my partner,

we've been together just over five years now,

and we are expecting our first-born any minute, any day now.

So, we met at uni, didn't we? She wouldn't leave me alone.

Well, he says that to everyone! The other way round.

With the baby's arrival imminent,

Matt's been presented with a fresh distraction.

So, Matt come home and he was, like, just randomly,

out the blue, "I'm going to the Falklands."

And I just wasn't prepared to hear that.

I always knew Matt would go away at some point.

I just never thought it'd be when I needed him the most.

I do wish he wasn't going.

I just was begging him,

like, "Please tell them, like, can you go next year?"

And it's just not possible.

Can you get that side? Yep.

Obviously it's never nice leaving your family to go away,

but obviously I've signed up for this, it's what I'm here to do.

I think he will be upset. I think anyone would be.

He's just keeping it together for us, really.

Cos I'm sure he knows if I see him upset

I'll be even more upset!

Matt's deployment to the Falklands will last for six months.

We're done.

OK? Yeah, thank you.

MATT SIGHS, GERI LAUGHS

MAN: Ready!

MAN SHOUTS INSTRUCTIONS

54, pass.

Thank you so much.

Patch it up. Cracking.

Those guys in the sky need you to make their sandwiches.

Current aircraft altitude 100, 210.

Inside 13 Squadron's hangar,

pilot Ollie, camera operator Jim and intelligence analyst Melissa

are controlling a Reaper drone over 3,000 miles away above Iraq.

Yeah, doesn't look like there's anything in the back.

Can't see any boxes, barrels, etc.

For the last hour,

they've been tracking four men behaving suspiciously.

He's moving very quickly again now.

They are now on the move in a white truck.

About 20 metres per second.

There's always the potential that the people in this vehicle are

direct members of ISIS, given the location that they came from.

Copied.

You can kind of get a sense of ISIS personnel.

Obviously if we see a weapons system,

that makes it a lot easier for us.

Er, there's a main road coming up in approximately three miles, yeah.

If he makes a left turn at that main road,

there's a small settlement.

If he turns right out into the desert,

and there are no settlements for a considerable distance,

then we can assess that it's far more likely

that he is doing something nefarious.

ISIS has a network of safe houses in remote locations

acting as accommodation, training facilities,

or even headquarters, for planning acts of terror.

We're approaching that junction now.

At no point within the mission are we sitting there going,

"Gosh, I hope this turns into something sinister.

"Let's get going."

But to not be prepared for that to happen would also be a mistake.

And he is turning right.

So, he is turning towards the deserted location.

So this is a high probability of him being affiliated to ISIS.

There's a possibility he might be heading

to some sort of weapons cache.

He's driving quite erratically,

there's a lot of slowing down and speeding up.

Bongo's off. He's just pulled off to the side of the road.

It's literally into the middle of the desert.

There's nothing for miles and miles. It is.

Yeah, that's really strange, that, isn't it?

We're currently just standing off, just to avoid detection.

Obviously, we don't want anyone that we are watching to hear us

or even spot us visually.

Analyst Melissa is relaying minute-by-minute information

to an intelligence support unit.

So, we conduct a couple of scans up and down.

Just see if we can see anything and maybe zoom in one.

The support unit can update the team's orders,

but before they do, the van makes off again.

Looks like he's turning around. Yep.

Genuinely, that is suspicious. Why? What are you doing?

What are you up to?

At the moment, as long as we're reporting back effectively

to the intelligence unit that is working with us,

the information we get from following this vehicle is

far more useful than us just taking him off the board.

Right turn off the road there.

Seen. Approaches random building. Stand by.

Vehicle has stopped. Seen.

One out of the building. White trad.

One adult male, white trad, interacting with the driver? Seen.

An adult male has just left the building.

Two adult males out of the building

and now both interacting with the driver of the white Bongo

we've been following.

There is a potential that they may well be collecting people

to go and perform some sort of hostile act.

So, the supported unit have this down

as a possible ISIS weapons cache.

Updates from the mission commanders are being fed through

to the Reaper team.

They want us to continue to observe this building.

In recent weeks,

Iraqi peacekeeping forces have been attacked by ISIS

at nearby roadside checkpoints.

Circular loiter.

There's an Iraqi checkpoint three, four nautical miles away.

With Iraqi forces only a few miles away,

Ollie's authorised to use lethal force

if he sees an immediate threat to life.

You need to be able to switch

from that intelligence-gathering mindset into that

'Let's put a weapon down - strike' mindset...rapidly.

Put the crosshairs on the ground.

Your heart starts going. And you start to sweat.

Your hands go all clammy.

Oh, movement just to the southern corner of the building.

We are here to eliminate ISIS.

I'm just trying to figure out what that is.

There's a child there. Affirm, seen.

But seeing a child is the worst-case scenario.

That's three...four adult men?

I can see now that there's just a child

come into frame as well there.

An armed RAF Reaper drone is flying above a group

of suspected ISIS militants in Iraq.

A child has just been spotted with the group.

It's odd for them to be

in such close proximity to one another.

Yes, seen.

Pilot Ollie is liaising with senior commanders

about the team's next move.

We are going to keep eyes on it.

Unless we see rounds going down range,

weapons going down range towards friendly forces,

coalition forces,

it's never our decision to employ a weapon and engage.

There's a full team.

You've got senior military chiefs,

you've got a military lawyer,

you've got a policy adviser,

and they will all work together to assess

that this is a target we actually want to take out.

We've got a 3-4 nautical mile stand-off range.

We'll probably just put 500m circles round it,

just to avoid flying directly over the target.

Although the suspected ISIS group is well in range

of the Reaper's missiles,

it's been decided by mission commanders

that a child's life cannot be risked.

All right, see you in a bit. Bye-bye.

ISIS have learned that we will not strike targets

if there are women and children present,

because they are classed as non-combatants.

So, what we see quite a lot of times

with high-value individuals within ISIS

is that they will use that to their advantage.

Often we'll see that they'll bring a single child along with them,

and it gives them, essentially...

They're safe for that period of time.

We'll sit on this target for quite some time.

With Reaper, we've got multiple crews coming in and out,

doing night shifts and day shifts.

And sometimes it will take months and months

of target development

before we employ weapons without any collateral damage.

Bingo, we need to be back off task at 16.15 to get back.

So happy to max chat back for the next crew.

Knowledge of the suspected ISIS cell is being passed

up the command chain.

Back to the MSR?

The next Reaper crew on shift will continue

to monitor them, and strike if necessary.

Cool, crew debrief.

We handed over the Bongo that we were tracking

to the next crew.

They're going to keep feeding that back to the SU

and push on from there.

When we first started using Reaper,

there was so much secrecy around what we did

and it became sensationalised.

A lot of the detractors to drones say we're just a load

of computer gamers, sipping coffee, eating doughnuts

and just flying around, deciding we don't like the look of someone

and dropping a missile on them.

Thank you. Thank you for your work today. Have a good one.

Nice one. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.

But we care about what's going on down on the ground.

You're in for often 12.5 hours, 13 hours a day.

Afterwards you're knackered, you're absolutely shattered.

It's a very strange thing to be following a target in Iraq,

then hand over not knowing what happens next,

and then I'm in Tesco buying dinner.

The real toll is it's very difficult

to disassociate from what we were just doing,

back into normal life.

But at the same time, it's an incredible feeling.

We are providing security to the nation and our allies 24/7.

Morning, Sir.

Yeah, good, thank you. How are you?

Rover one Waddington Tower.

Enter runway 2-0 from the northern cable.

Yeah, it's good. Hmm.

This is Elsie. She's 20 days old today.

She's everything now, isn't she? Mm-hm.

Soon to deploy to the Falklands, Matt has just become a father.

The birth went well, really. I mean, it was a bit of a...

We had a C-section, so that was a bit of a surprise.

Yeah, it was a big shock.

Like, obviously, we planned just to have a normal labour.

And then, two days before, the midwife said she's too big.

Just safer for both of you, weren't it? Yeah.

And it was perfect.

She's a really chilled baby, isn't she? Yeah.

But obviously things can change when he goes back to work!

He's literally going to leave when she's a newborn and come back

and she's going to be, like, six months, like, crawling.

But he's just holding it all together.

And I think it's because I'm so upset,

he's just trying to just keep it positive.

I'll put all the...

..pots in one of them.

Liquids.

To help pack, Matt's enlisted his dad,

who knows first-hand about life in the forces.

Matt was born out in Cyprus in '95,

when we were on our first tour as a married couple.

And then he's been with us through Brunei,

Cyprus, three Germany tours,

so transition and change has not been,

you know, it's not alien to Matt.

Do you reckon these will be all right?

I'd spread them out across a couple of bags.

I wouldn't try and fill one bag.

Hang on a minute. No!

This is for when he gets sad at night, folks.

Don't! Come on, you know you want it.

DAD LAUGHS

It's essential.

Nice, I'll take pictures of that for Elsie and send them home,

like you did for us.

That's it. Ready to go.

Downstairs, three generations of Matt's family have come

to see him off.

This will be the last time they'll be together for at least six months.

She might be walking by the time you get back, Matt.

Hello. What is it? Well, she's got a walker, so...

I don't feel bad for myself.

Obviously, it's what I signed up for, but it's just, like, Geri,

having to leave her with a newborn and just making sure she'll be fine

and have the support while I'm gone.

I do know, like, she's strong and she'll be able to sort it.

Just got to crack on.

Service before self. Like, it's part and parcel of it.

It's a part of the game.

Ready when you are, Shep.

CHATTER OVER RADIO

Clear for take-off. Wind 0-6-0.

You see it on the news all the time

with all the bombs that are hitting the ground,

these are the ones that are going off.

Just over 300 miles off the coast of Syria,

RAF Akrotiri is the Air Force's busiest front line station.

Tower Ascot 9958 ready for departure.

Roger, runway 2-8 clear for take-off.

Its warplanes are central to the UK's effort,

countering Russian aggression from the north...

Russian markings.

..combating the resurgence of Isis to the east...

Maintain eyes on that person.

..and facing down emerging threats across the region.

Morning. Morning, mate.

Thank you, sir. Cheers. Great. Thank you.

My whole family was in the Air Force.

I actually used to live here as a child.

One of those little boys whose head was always looking skyward.

Quite funny to see myself here as a grown-up

and the boss of a typhoon squadron.

I'm Wing Commander Mark Robertson, OC 11 Squadron.

Back in the UK, I've got a young family.

Leaving home to go on tour is bittersweet.

However, my wife would say I'm an emotionless robot,

so I just come and get on with it.

Morning. You all right?

Known as Robbo by his squadron,

this is the wing commander's last tour on the front line.

You might notice the torture contraption behind me.

Being strapped to a seat for eight or nine hours a day,

it hurts after a while, so you use this contraption to release

the knots in your back.

I think I've got the neck of a 65-year-old already,

so you've just got to look after yourself.

At a time of increased tension across the Middle East,

Robbo's responsible for over 150 personnel,

including 15 Typhoon pilots.

We're on bit of a strategic knife edge,

making decisions that could have really big political consequences,

so, you know, don't screw it up!

ALARM WAILS

This is coalition warship security.

Whilst operating off the coast of Yemen,

British destroyer HMS Diamond has come under missile attack

from a terror group.

Less than ten seconds from impact...

Missile inbound.

The crew shoot the incoming missiles out of the sky.

An Iranian-backed rebel group, the Houthi,

continues to target UK and US naval forces in the Red Sea.

Following the attacks on HMS Diamond and Western cargo ships,

the Houthis, a terrorist regime that controls much of Yemen,

escalate their aggression by attacking the US Air Force.

Now to the Middle East and the dramatic new video from the

Iran-backed Houthi militia, who claim it shows them shooting down

a US drone in Yemen.

We saw this huge attack last night by the Houthi militants.

This has to stop.

That is my simple message to them today. Watch this space.

Robbo's squadron has just been handed fresh orders

direct from Downing Street.

In response to the Houthi attacks,

we've been tasked with striking some Houthi facilities in Yemen.

Intelligence analysis has identified two target locations for us,

which are housing long-range drones

that are used for these strikes against shipping.

Our task is to strike those targets.

It'll be approximately a seven-hour mission.

There is a surface-to-air threat there that we have to think about.

The Houthi missile sites are located inland,

protected by anti-aircraft weaponry.

From RAF Akrotiri,

Robbo will lead a team of fully armed Typhoons southeast,

along a safe passage above the Red Sea.

After nightfall, they'll cross into hostile airspace in an attempt

to eliminate the missile facilities.

PHONE RINGS

Yeah, happy. All planned.

They'll be taking four Paveway IVs

and four missiles each.

Actions like this come from the highest levels of government.

The UK needs to show that if they do attack our ships and our allies,

then we're prepared to do something about it.

That's what the Air Force is here to do.

Team's all good to go.

Yep, will do. Bye.

Flying alongside Robbo

will be one of the RAF's most experienced pilots.

I'm the oldest pilot on 11 Squadron.

Fear is not a useful tool in the job that we do.

This is the sharp end, if you want, the tip of the spear.

Out briefing.

Just focused on the task that's coming up.

Pre-checklist for all your items.

Camera, head torch. Yep.

We're going into hostile territory, so if the worst does happen,

we have a survival pack.

Cash, fuel card, security... pistol and mags.

Doing something like this,

I don't know if I will see my family again.

There's an element of guilt.

This is the first time Robbo and Ed will take on the Houthis...

Slide to go forward.

Operate the trigger.

..and little is known about how capable their air defences are.

We know the Iranians have given the Houthis weapons that can target us.

The worst-case scenario is obviously losing a pilot on this mission.

The second-worst would be captured

and the exploitation that comes with that.

We're putting ourselves into harm's way for this mission.

Everyone is aware of the potential to be shot at.

Robbo and Ed must now fly three hours southeast.

As night falls, they'll join forces

with American jets for the final assault.

We're pulling this plan together in a very rapid timeline.

Flying over a country in the dark, in the middle of the night,

going into a threat that we don't know, to drop a bomb.

Anything can go wrong.

There is a real risk.

An American Reaper drone is making final checks

on Houthi missile facilities...

..ensuring no civilians are present before coalition air strikes begin.

100 miles away over the Red Sea,

Robbo and Ed are joining up with American jets.

Flying a fully armed aircraft on a mission,

I still get those flutters in my tummy.

We know that the Houthis will have the firepower to shoot us down.

I want to make sure I get through the next 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes

without making a mistake.

The team have waited for the cover of darkness

to help evade the Houthis' anti-aircraft missiles,

provided by Iran...

..but night flying adds a layer of complexity.

Overnight-vision goggles,

it is just like looking through two toilet tubes

with green plastic in front of them.

The actual act of flying is a lot harder,

but we want the element of surprise.

It's time for the RAF jets to start the first phase of the bombing run.

It's a big moment when you cross over the coast

and you know you're not safe any more.

The US drone flying above the target area

has just been shot down,

confirming fears about Houthi anti-aircraft capability.

There's no such thing as a simple mission.

Hearing on the radio that the drones been shot down,

all of a sudden, it feels very real.

But we trust in the kit and we trust in the plan.

The RAF jets remain on course to the Houthi targets.

First in range is Ed.

On approach to a target, there'd be almost no chat on the radio.

Everyone is just focused, really focused.

TICKING

TICKING SPEEDS UP

Ed is first to approach his target, a large Houthi missile site.

When we release the bombs...

..you feel a thump.

There is a delay until the point of impact.

And that period of time can feel like an eternity.

Seeing the target area being successfully struck,

there's a surge of adrenaline.

But the job's not over.

Now it's time to be a wingman.

Once the first aircraft drop their bombs,

the enemy knows you're coming.

That threat level goes up and so too must our focus.

With the Houthis now on high alert,

Robbo's heading towards the final target.

Cloud cover is blocking the view to the last missile facility,

forcing all jets to remain in the danger zone.

Every second that we're there, it gives the enemy time to respond,

but if you try and cut corners or try and be expeditious,

that's where the mistakes will happen, so you just have to resist

every urge to get things done quickly.

Robbo spots a gap in the cloud - an opportunity to attack.

Having struck all the targets...

..British and American jets race to the safety of the Red Sea.

Our plan was to be in and out as quickly as we could.

As squadron commander, you certainly have a sense of apprehension

until you know you're all safe and over friendly airspace again.

The last person out of the threat zone has a code word.

The US Navy got to choose this time.

Obviously an American beer. HE CHUCKLES

Whilst a coalition drone is redeployed to assess

the strike's effectiveness,

the RAF jets make their three-hour return to Akrotiri.

There's just a few poignant moments in the dark,

when you're flying along, to reflect on the way back.

Just you and the jet noise and the stars.

Going on missions, completely different now to when I started.

My first operational mission,

I was steering the aeroplane with my knees, looking at the troops

on the ground through binoculars,

and now, we're looking through laser-targeting bots

and drones that are zipping around.

As the team reaches Cyprus...

..word reaches Robbo from analysts

assessing the aftermath of the strikes.

Fortunately, the plan worked

and everything we planned to hit was struck.

When the aeroplanes parked up and those engines shut down,

there was certainly a sigh of relief.

It's always good to be home.

Having surveyed the site of the strikes in Yemen,

the coalition drone has also landed safely.

I think we have to embrace technology.

Drones and autonomous platforms will be a huge part of the future.

It means less people away from family...

Hi, Dad. Hello.

Dad, what have you done today?

..less pilots in harm's way...

Baghdad Envy One One, Squark 1050.

..but I don't think they'll completely replace fighter pilots

in my lifetime.

I think they will complement each other.

It can make us far more powerful

and help protect the UK and its interests, so it's a good thing.

Next time...

Typhoon 309, Coningsby approach, radio check.

..a rookie pilot on his first-ever Typhoon flight

has an emergency in the cockpit...

309's got no comms.

The reality is this is dangerous.

..before the whole of the RAF is rocked

by a tragic accident at Coningsby.

Thoughts are with his family and his kids.

It is with great sorrow that I must confirm the death

of Squadron Leader Mark Long.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media