Inside the cockpit of RAF tanker during defensive mission against Iranian drones

Inside the cockpit of RAF tanker during defensive mission against Iranian drones 33 minutes ago Share Save Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent, Cyprus Share Save The loud screech of a Typhoon and F-35 jet rips through the night sky above RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. It's followed by the heavier rumble of the larger refuelling aircraft that will join its mission - hunting down Iranian drones. The RAF Voyager is the giant petrol station in the sky for the Typhoon and F-35 jets which have been patrolling the skies over Cyprus and Jordan for the past month. The BBC is among the first news outlets to witness these defensive missions in the air being conducted day and night, ever since the US and Israel began their bombing campaign against Iran. From the cockpit of the Voyager we watched the shimmering lights of Cyprus fade into the distance. We were getting closer to the coast of Israel and Lebanon. From that direction we see a brief flash of orange light. One of the crew points to it and tells me: "Quite often you can see either incoming missiles from Iran or the Israeli response." "It might be the Iron Dome from Israel," the pilot interjects over the intercom, referring to the country's air defence system. "We don't know for sure," he adds, "but there's a lot of kinetic things happening in that area at the moment". Evidence, then, that even after a month of heavy bombing Iran still poses a threat an is still firing missiles and drones. During this nine-hour mission, the Typhoon and F-35 jet refuel seven times - taking on a total of 30 tonnes of aviation fuel. We see them appear out of the dark at speed to make the delicate manoeuvre to feed their fuel-hungry jets - locking on to a hose trailing from the tanker wing. For the fighter pilots, it's routine. It's the hunting down of Iranian drones which poses more of a challenge. Over the past month, British jets operating out of Cyprus and Qatar have shot down several. They won't say exactly how many times they've fired their ...