An RAF fighter pilot who blasted two Iranian drones out of the sky over Jordan marked the dramatic moment with a simple reward - an ice-cold beer as the sun came up. The unnamed pilot had spent four hours in the cockpit of an F-35B stealth jet, flying alongside two Typhoon fighters, when his aircraft’s radar detected the incoming threat.

Moments later he fired AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, destroying the two Shahed drones before they could reach their targets. His successful strike on Monday night marked the first time a British F-35B pilot had destroyed a target during an operation. The pilot, who did not want to be named for security reasons, then celebrated with a bottle of Keo, a local Cyprus beer, at sunrise.

As reported by the Mirror, he described the strike as "like training". The pilot added that he was concerned about identifying the drones before taking the shots.

He added: "But we had a good time to do that between me and the Typhoons that were airborne at the time to get that done".

After being asked what it was like when he hit the targets, the pilot replied: "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 suppose. I just get out the way and get back on to doing the job again."

A hangar at RAF Akrotiri, home to two US U2 spy plans, was struck by a drone the day before. This added extra jeopardy to the pilot's operation as he knew he could not afford any drones to slip through.

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He explained: "What we don't know, is because they, they're so small and difficult to detect, we don't know if there's any more out there. When you have to turn your aircraft around to shoot them down, what you're not doing is turning your radar back to where they came from to try and find the next."

Troops in the area remain on high alert for incoming drones and missiles. Although the pilot said the two he shot down were "very different" to the kamikaze attack from the day before, he did not explain why.

When asked what he did after the strikes, he said: "We had 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 tempo at the moment. So, when this is all over, whenever it ends, then I'm sure we'll celebrate appropriately."