New way to kill baddies

In an interview with the Sunday People, the former pilot revealed the pressures of flying a heavily-armed Reaper UAV, or unmanned air vehicle.

“I was told very early on in my career that when I dropped a bomb on someone, I should think about it as if I were stepping on ants,” he said.

“That didn’t quite work for me but I knew what they meant.

“Every kinetic operation had to have a legal sign-off and we had to follow the rules of engagement, which were no different from other pilots or troops on the ground. Reaper is a silent killer. The enemy can’t see or hear it coming – that’s why UAV is so effective.”

The RAF ace, who is still a serving member of the armed forces, admitted that unlike troops fighting 3,000 miles away in Iraq or Syria, he was always completely safe when taking part in military operations.

“The most dangerous part of my day was driving to work,” he said. “But that didn’t allow room for complacency.

“When flying, I was in a sealed box oblivious to what was going on in the outside world.

“I wore a flying suit even though I never left the ground, but I could easily have been dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.”

He said few pilots would admit to suffering mental trauma amid fears it could harm their careers.

“At the end of my shift, I would drive home and try to get on with my life but I stopped telling people what I did.

“I had too many of those, ‘How could you do that?’ arguments,” he said.

“There were occasions when I had bad dreams and there was mental health support if needed, but I think the view amongst most pilots is that the moment you start seeking mental health support you may as well kiss your career goodbye.

“Do I have PTSD? I don’t know and I don’t want to know. I just got on with the job and dealt with it. You have to take the

DRONES have become defining weapons of 21st century warfare after emerging as killing machines almost 20 years ago.

They were first used for surveillance in the 1991 Gulf War and the Balkans conflict in 1993.

After 9/11, the CIA used one to try and kill Taliban founder Mullah Omar but hit a lorry instead.

Since then, America has used the airborne terminators to assassinate terrorists with increasing success and they are seen as the best way to kill bad guys without risking military lives.

Under President Barack Obama, 563 strikes were sanctioned between 2008 and 2016. And President Trump has allowed drones to be used beyond the battlefield, picking off enemy targets in Yemen and Somalia.

In 2015, British IS ringleader Mohammed Emwazi, or Jihadi John, was killed by a drone in Syria.

But the biggest scalp so far has been Iran’s top general Qasem Soleimani – wiped out in January.

Experts say his death set a worrying precedent because it was the first time America had used a drone to kill a top official in another country.

The RAF began flying £13million Reapers in 2007. They were used in Afghanistan and against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Rebels are also becoming expert at drone attacks – knocking out the world’s biggest oil plant in Saudi Arabia last September.

And Russian president Vladimir Putin is said to have ordered tests of a nuke-armed drone torpedo.

approach that as a member of a UAV team, you are helping save the lives of people on the ground.

“A lot of effort goes into target selection and at the end of the day, my job was to press the button.”

Details released under the Freedom of Information Act show that between January and March last year, up to four military personnel were diagnosed with PTSD and awarded over £22,000.

The MOD also revealed that the number of compensation payouts for PTSD cases has risen from 60 in 2009/10