A NAVY Top Gun who made history by shooting down Iranian drones has described the “relief that I did it right”.
The stealth jet pilot, who can’t be named, downed two drones in 20 minutes as he roared low over Jordan’s deserts last week.
It was the first time a UK F-35 has fired its missiles in anger and downed another aircraft.
He was “too busy” to feel emotions when he unleashed his ASRAAM missiles, he said.
It was only once the dust had settled he felt pride at a job well done and relief that he got the right target – and it wasn’t a friendly fire tragedy.
His mission came days after Kuwaiti air defence forces shot down three US F-15 jets in a spectacular blue-on-blue blunder, which miraculously the crews survived.
Speaking to The Sun from RAF Akrotiri, in Cyprus, the Navy Top Gun said: “Your adrenalin is pumping hard, you are working very hard.
“You are [flying] down low, at night over the desert in unfamiliar terrain. You are at capacity in terms of your work load.”
He was serving in 617 Squadron, the legendary Dambusters unit, which includes Royal Navy and RAF pilots.
Top Bass had ordered six F-35Bs to surge into Akrotiri as tensions spiralled with Iran in January.
Describing his feelings in the cockpit, he said “Emotionally, things all get pushed aside in the moment.
“It is not until after landing, and over the next few days, that you have a chance to reflect on the emotions you had at the time, but were too busy to feel.”
Asked what those feelings were, he said: “A combination of relief, that I did it right, because the consequences of getting it wrong and shooting the wrong thing down are unthinkable really.
He added: “We had heard about what happened in Kuwait for example and that is the last thing that any of us want to do.”
He was two-thirds through a night time mission when his wingman spotted a possible drone.
Up to that point he said there had been “nothing significant to report,” even though in the distance he could see multiple ballistic missiles being shot down by ground based interceptors.
The pilot said: “I was operating single F-35 alongside two Typhoons with a Voyager in Jordan.”
RAF Voyagers are refuelling aircraft that allow Typhoons and F-35B Lightnings spend longer on combat missions.
He added: “There had been several ballistic missile attacks across the wider region that you can see form the cockpit. It is interesting to see those intercepts from land base missiles happen overhead.”
One of the Typhoons with him visually identified a drone.
He said: “I was in a better position to get low down and fly alongside the drone to get to my targeting pods to get a foot look at it.”
His first priority was confirming it was in fact a hostile drone.
He added: “There were lots of drone and other aircraft in the area.
“Being sure of what we are shooting down is a really big factor.
“I made sure I had a positive identification, that it was a one way attack drone, and positioned behind it to shoot it down.”
Once the drone was in his sights he pressed the so-called “pickle button” and unleashed a devastating ASRAAM air-to-air missile
He added: “The missile comes off very, very quickly. You have a flash of light.
“The light disappears below the cockpit. In reality you are looking through your targeting pod to watch it hit the target.”
Footage filmed by his wingman in an RAF Typhoon showed a missile blasting a drone to bits.
The pilot watched his missile hit the target and radioed the codewords: “Splash! One by UAV”.
Splash confirmed he had seen it destroyed. “One by UAV” refers to a single drone. Around 20 minutes later the same thing happened again.
Both times the F-35 was less than a mile from its target, the pilot said.
Critics have claimed that F-35s – which cost £100 million each – are too expensive to use to shoot down drones
Lt Col Mike Carty, the commander of 617 Squadron, insisted not all the Iranian drones were cheap.
He said some were “eye-waveringly expensive” and “exquisite capabilities”.
The Royal Marine pilot said: “There is a wide variety of munitions being fired. Some are quite cheap, some are eye-wateringly expensive”
But he insisted it just wasn’t a question of money.
He added: “We are not measuring the cost of an air-to-air missile versus a drone.
“We are comparing an air-to-air missile versus the cost of lives that would be taken, if it wasn’t.”
The tempo of operations was “greater than anything the Lightning force has embarked on before,” he said.
He added: “The sheer amount of sorties and flying hours is quite high and it is quite a complicated operating area.”
But he insisted that pilots and crew were relishing it.
He said: “There is such a sense of satisfaction. People are working hard but they absolutely love it.
“This is what we do. We are defending British sovereign territory, and British people.
“It is a really important thing that the King asks us to do on his behalf to defend his people and his assets.”
