All language subtitles for Top Guns Inside The RAF - Season 1 - EP-06

The room goes a bit more quiet
and everyone goes a bit more serious

because you are going up
to go and get a Russian.

SIREN WAILS

Go! Go! Go!

The heart's going a bit, the
adrenaline is definitely pumping.

As a junior pilot I've never seen
a Russian aircraft up close,

and you don't want to be making
mistakes.

There's a lot of pressure
in the build up.

You're definitely on edge
the entire time

because it's a life or death
scenario.

The RAF is on high alert.

The world at the moment is not
in the best of places.

The Russian vessel running along
at ten knots.

Everything that's happening
with Russia and Ukraine,

it's like a tinderbox.

You're doing an important role
protecting from Vlady the Baddy.

ALARM WAILS

Ha-ha!

With conflict in Europe

and the Middle East...

...British warplanes are poised
to face any threat.

We are one trigger press away
from starting World war Ill.

Only when you've sat in your own pee
for about two hours over Mosul

have you really made it.
It's what you don't see on Top Gun.

# I know my name
as it's called again

# Ooh-ooh. #

INDISTINCT SINGING

ALARM WAILS

At a one-time Soviet airbase,

the NATO jets are busier than ever.

They pride themselves
on rapid reaction here.

Air crews are able to scramble and
be airborne in just a few minutes.

What was the time? Very, very quick.
Another one for the scoreboard.

Alongside NATO colleagues
from Germany,

RAF Lossiemouth's 9 Squadron

has been deployed
to Estonia's Amari airbase.

Just 200 miles from Russia.

I'm just going to update
the Germans.

Always the avionics.
It's always the avionics.

Takes a few minutes. You just
need to get better avionics guys.

You hid the pen
so we can't update it?

No!
LAUGHTER

Never fear, Sharpie is here.

Number acht.

THEY LAUGH

There's a good race on at the moment
and we've been told to go up

and get airborne to when
the jets are ready to go.

So we're winning, naturally,

and the Germans are trying
their best to catch up.

I'm Flight Lieutenant Moz

and I'm a Typhoon pilot based at RAF
Lossiemouth, on 9 Bomber Squadron.

Always wanted to do it, really,
since I was young.

Dad was in the Air Force as well,
so was Grandad on my mum's side,

and all the stories of the comradery
and the extracurriculars

always sounded quite good fun.

Is this your locker, Moz? Yeah,
this is my locker here, yeah, yeah.

Do you mind if I tidy it up a bit
first before you put it on camera?

How many pilots are in here?

There's quite a few.
We share with Germans at the moment

so there's about five or six of us
and a couple of other guys as well.

I learned to fly the Typhoon
ten months ago.

I'd definitely still call myself
a JP, Junior Pilot.

Definitely don't have as much
experience as the other guys

on the squadron but it's a great
squadron to be learning on.

How you getting on? Just doing
some maintenance. Cool.

Since 9 Squadron moved into Amari,

scrambles to intercept Russian jets,

flying worryingly close
to NATO territory,

have occurred almost daily.

I'm Wing Commander Richard Leask,
Officer Commanding, 9 Squadron.

Our core mission here is
the defence of NATO air space.

How do we do that?
That's in quick reaction alert.

We practice our scrambles.
We call them tango scrambles.

For the junior pilots,
in particular, who are new to QRA,

it's a fantastic training
opportunity

to get used to and comfortable
with scrambling aircraft.

The Amari QRA is quite exciting,

trying to cut down that time
to get airborne,

it's definitely part of being a
pilot that you want to be the best.

PHONE RINGS

SIREN WAILS

When the QRA alarm sounds,

pilots are expected
to be airborne within minutes

to intercept any potential threat.

The alarm goes, everything else
goes out the window.

Nothing else is important
at that point.

It's an instant adrenaline rush.

Then get airborne
as quickly as possible.

Before he can get under way,

an alarm's triggered
inside Moz's cockpit.

Told him to get an FRS,
shut down, come back in.

Moz can't fly
until it's deactivated.

The Germans win this race
and go it alone.

What actually happened?

I pulled a PLB out by accident,
so, yeah, got to reset.

The personal locator beacon
is attached to a pilot's flying suit

and is usually only activated
in an emergency.

If you were to eject,
your beacon would get pulled

and it'll emit a frequency to locate
you if you were in a dingy.

Unfortunately, in the heat of the
moment, it's just been snagged.

It's happened to a lot of people,
I've certainly done it before,

when I was on a deployment
out in Malaysia,

I went to the spare aircraft
and in the heat of the moment

ran into the spare, just caught it
on the way out. All right, Moz?

Mate, these things happen,
don't worry about it.

I've done it before,
you won't be the last.

It's the first time
I've ever done it in a Typhoon

and it had to fucking be on
fucking TV.

Don't worry about it,
these things happen.

It can be frustrating, he'll beat
himself up about it but,

big picture, nothing was lost,
it was a training sortie,

it was quickly rectified,
so, yeah...

He just puts it behind him
and go on and get on with the job.

You've lost two points there,
you realise that? I know, I know.

THEY LAUGH

When you make a mistake in the jet,
it's frustrating.

Sometimes it's out of your control
and there's external factors but,

yeah, there's a mistake you've made
and in the moment you know it,

massively frustrating, especially
if there's a lot riding on it.

We've got multiple different
standards of accommodation.

We are in the process of upgrading

but like anything it takes time,
it takes money.

150 miles north of Edinburgh,
RAF Lossiemouth is expanding.

So you're here to look at the new
accommodation, are you? Yeah.

So, you're hoping to get in here
quickly and have your own shower.

Around 1,000 people
live inside the wire

of the RAF's busiest operational
airbase at any one time.

Living on base is not always
the best but

having a short commute to work,
especially in something

that does 25 miles to the gallon,
is a bit of a godsend, really.

27-year-old Ross Macleod

was posted to Lossiemouth after
completing his basic training.

I grew up in York.

I was a little bit restless,
I think.

The main reason I joined
was to be a part of something

a lot bigger than myself,

I wanted to get out and do something
a bit different, a bit special.

Ross is among the first-ever group
of recruits the RAF are training

to operate their brand-new
surveillance aircraft, Poseidon.

OK. Morning, folks!

SUW and SW
against merch targets today.

We do need to get into Reykjavik's
airspace then we'll talk to them later on.

I'm training to search for

and track Russian boats
using various different means,

lots of which is kind of shrouded
in a little bit of secrecy.

With Russian naval activity at its
highest since the Cold War...

En route then we won't go too high,
about 180 up to 220,

depending on the airspace usage
above us.

...the RAF needs more crews

trained in detecting vessels
in waters around the UK.

There is a perceived threat
from Russia.

They are probably the main player
that we go out and look for.

They send a lot of stuff our way.

We find it, you know,
they are sneaky.

Don't just sit back and relax
and don't think that just

because someone else is looking
over your shoulder

you can sit on any information.
Do speak out and speak clearly.

After three and a half years
of training,

Ross is facing his final
and most important test flight.

Pass, and he progresses
to front line duties.

Fail, and he must re-sit
the last eight months.

This is the one you need to do
to pass.

So just don't do anything silly.

Keep with the SOPs and do exactly
as you've been doing

in the last few sorties
and everything will be magic.

Final flight, pretty nervous,

there's a lot riding on it.

It's basically the answer to,
"Do we pass the course or not?"

You've operated to an LCR standard
so far. Any other questions?

Overseeing Ross's final flight is
Squadron Leader Stuart Roxbourgh,

a Cold war veteran
turned instructor.

The Russians are developing
bigger, better, quieter,

more capable boats than
they were during the Cold War.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

And, consequently,
we in the Royal Air Force,

we need to train a generation
of aircrew who are as capable,

if not better, at hunting them down,

at finding them, at being able
to ascertain where they are,

what they're doing,
where they're going.

OK, delta brief, then, checklist.

Aircraft steps,
the parking brake is set

and we are clear to close
the door at your discretion.

Any questions? Let's go.

Our job is to help secure the seas

around the United Kingdom
and wherever else we're tasked.

We have to ensure that the
individuals are good enough

to go to the front line to go out
on patrol and find and locate,

track and report those contacts.

On the qualifying flight,

you need to be able to go to
the front line the next day.

So, the gloves are off.

what else have you got to do, mate?
Oh, fucking hell. way-hey.

A lot of pressure,
a lot of things on the mind,

the one thing I forgot to do
on the ready for take-off

was bring the steps in,

so the door got shut
but the steps were still out

which was probably not
the best start to the final test.

Heading north over the Atlantic,

Ross' mission is to find three
commercial fishing vessels

operating within one of Europe's
most inhospitable shipping lanes.

Locate them, and he'll qualify
for active operations,

hunting real military targets.

Using the Poseidon's
long-range camera,

Ross must visually identify
the target ships,

but poor conditions
are making it tougher.

Getting visual with these targets is
going to be really difficult today,

even if we're looking out the
windows right on top of them.

I've wanted to do this
for as long as I can remember,

to be a part of the defence
of our nation.

I would hate to have got to this
point and not pass the final test.

Pretty nerve-racking.
It could all go wrong.

Where we work, we're not...
We're not in the Bahamas.

We're not in, you know,
the beautiful Mediterranean

where there's good weather all the
time. It's awful weather outside.

Really not what we want
on our final test.

In the RAF's brand-new
surveillance aircraft,

Poseidon trainee Ross

is struggling to find the first
of three fishing vessels.

To avoid cloud cover,
they're descending to 250 feet.

You wouldn't think you'd ever find
yourself sitting on an airliner

effectively going 250 feet
over the ocean,

you know, going past fishing vessels
and you can see they guys on board,

as you go past, without a camera.

That's pretty...pretty impressive.

Two hours into the flight...

Oh.

...Ross spots something
on the camera.

Ross has successfully located

and identified the first
of three fishing vessels.

Finally seeing it when you're under
that pressure

is a massive wave of relief.

With two more targets to find,
the test is far from over.

I think anyone that's not feeling
nervous has probably

got their head switched on wrong.

This is it, this is make or break.

The pressure's on
when there's a task at hand,

but we can fly for eight,
nine hours at a time

so food's always...
always a priority as well.

Yeah, I'm pretty food focused.
I love a good feed.

One of the hidden perks, I suppose,
of the job on P8

is we've got the galley.

It's the busiest I've seen it at
Amari since being here,

that's for sure. I think
even the Estonians sent a jet up,

I don't know, t
hey just do their own thing.

What's it like
sitting on top of that?

Well, it's not that comfy to sit on.

I mean, I can sleep anywhere.
I have slept on the wings, etc.

But it's all right, just like
sitting on a car, isn't it?

Like sitting on a Lamborghini,
is that special?

Right, gentle, gentle, monkey,
monkey. Let's not sheer it.

There we go, leave that there,
not sheared, not broken.

Engineers have got a better gig.

We get to fix them,
we don't have to fly them.

Only pilots go to war in the RAF.

Hanger piloting is even cooler
cos then we get it on sticks

put the under carriage up, fly
about, pretend I'm being Maverick...

That's pretty cool.

We had an alpha scramble
about an hour and a half ago.

Jet's just come back.

We're just giving it a check over,
refuelling it now,

checking all weapons and making sure
they're good as well.

And then once it's refuel led,
we'll park it back on,

the pilot will come out and take
charge of the jet again

and then on state
for a next alpha scramble.

Junior pilot Moz is starting
his very first shift

on QRA duty in Estonia.

Cheers, mate, cheers.

Never before has he guarded NATO's
front line against the Russians.

Being on QRA is definitely exciting,
it feels a bit more serious,

there's a lot of pressure,
I'd say, in the build up,

you're definitely on edge
for the entire time.

While on QRA, 9 Squadron receive
minute-by-minute intelligence

on possible threats
to NATO airspace.

It's about 15, 20 minutes away...

A Russian aircraft has been spotted
leaving St Petersburg.

It's just begun
heading towards Estonia.

Whilst you're on Q
there is always

a heightened level
of alert state you're in.

You never fully switch off.

The room kind of
goes a bit more quiet

and everyone
goes a bit more serious.

We call it the mission bubble
in fighter pilot world.

It's where you start to protect
yourself from the external factors

and focus on what's actually
about to happen.

It's the unknown
and the adrenaline buzz

of getting airborne extremely
quickly into a situation

where you're going to have
to intercept something

and bring all your training,
that you've spent years practising,

into life.

There's a potential Russian aircraft
in the area at the moment,

we're currently tracking that

and we're looking to see
if that means NATO want us

to go and intercept that aircraft.

What's happening in there?
In there, right now?

Well, they were thinking there might
be another alpha scramble

that was getting quite close,
so if the alarm goes off

and I go sprinting off,
not my fault.

SIREN WAILS

Go, go, go.

The decision has been made

to scramble and intercept
the Russian jet.

Once the information is coming in
from NATO the heart's going a bit,

the adrenaline's
definitely pumping.

At the end of the day it's cos
it's a Russian aircraft out there,

and it's not just a guy
you're having a chat with

in the coffee bar next door, you're
going up to go and get a Russian.

The Russians are getting too close
to NATO airspace.

Moz needs to quickly ID the aircraft
and establish its intentions.

You never know for sure what it is
that you're intercepting

or what exactly is there until you
actually see it with your own eyes.

UNTRANSLATED

Small mistakes could amount to
quite a big error in the air

and lead to a potentially dangerous
situation.

It's a life or death scenario every time you
go flying, it's always, always dangerous.

It's good being back at home after
what's been a long four months.

Typhoon pilot Ben Chergui
is returning home

from his first active deployment,

flying missions against
the remnants of the terror group

Islamic State.

It's a huge contrast in landscape
as well,

driving past the river Spey
here compared to

the Euphrates in Iraq and Syria,

so this is a nice welcome change,
a lot more green.

Being a fighter pilot, it's probably
one of the best jobs in the world.

But when things have gone wrong,

that always plays on your mind
a lot.

It's a bit strange coming back.

Do you reflect on your experience
out there?

It's hard not to, really.

A lot of people in a lot of jobs
say it's high pressure environment

and you need to make the right
decision but I think, in this job

as a fighter pilot on ops, if you
make the wrong decision someone dies

and that can happen
in a split second

and sometimes you have just
a few seconds to make a decision

and if you don't make the correct
one, when you come back from ops

you're still thinking about it, thinking
what you could've done differently.

Sat in the cockpit,

ultimately you're responsible
for everything that you do.

And dropping a bomb. I can't think
of anything more serious.

To take a life
you have to be 100% sure.

After returning
from overseas deployments,

all personnel are invited to speak
with one of the padres at the base.

Hi. How are you doing? Ah, padre.
Thanks so much for seeing me.

Good to meet you. I'm just about to
make a brew, do you want anything?

Yeah, please, if possible, I'll grab a coffee,
if that's all right? Yeah, sure, sure, sure.

All padres are religious leaders
sent to be in the RAF.

We provide a safe space for people
to come and sound to off,

and believe you me there's not much
my four walls haven't heard.

OK, come on, we'll up to my office,
we're up the stairs.

Take your jacket off if you want,
make yourself at home.

So how's it going? Yeah, good. I'm
happy to be back at Lossiemouth.

So how many op tours
have you done?

This is my first one.
This is my first, Op Shader,

so I am fresh out of the packet. So
tell me about the last four months.

Is there anything about the tour
that sticks in your mind for you

that you found particularly
challenging, or...?

We had a call of coalition forces
camp that had recently been mortared

and they tracked back the mortar
position to this rough grid square.

We found an individual moving what
looked to be a load of piping maybe,

or potential mortars. We couldn't
quite see what was going on

but they were confident it had come
from that location

and he was the only person there.
This does look a bit suspicious.

How did you feel in that moment? I
mean, what was going through your mind?

You haven't really got time
to think about, you know,

"How do I feel
about killing this person?”

That ship's sailed, that ship sailed
when you join the Air Force.

Are they the right person to kill?

That's all you're thinking about.
Sure, sure.

Part of you wants to do your job,
you know... Sure, sure.

...and you want to take somebody bad
off the battlefield

but at the same time you don't want
to make any mistakes

or kill the wrong person or kill
someone who didn't need to die.

You don't want that hanging over
your head for the rest of your life.

It just highlights the life
and death decisions, effectively,

that are in your hands. I've
descended as low as I physically can

and literally as I pass through
the overhead,

I can make out what appear to be
cattle following this individual.

It turned out it was just a farmer

and he was just doing his job
as a farmer.

I mean, have you reflected
on that experience

and how do you feel about it?

That was one of those moments
where I thought, you know,

we could have easily ended up
attempting to weaponeer on him.

I'm quite glad that we took the time
to be more methodical and,

as a result of that,
we ID'd him as friendly

and neutral and we left him
to go about his business.

It's the closest I came to dropping
weapons on operations

and we came really close.

My door's always open so any time
you want to come for a brew

and a bit of a chat
then you're more than welcome.

See you. Thanks very much, padre.
No problem.

Above the Baltic Sea,

junior pilot Moz
is on his first QRA mission.

He's been tasked to intercept

an unidentified Russian aircraft

that's heading towards
NATO airspace.

We have information that there is

a Russian aircraft
that's in the vicinity.

There is a possibility that

the Russian aircraft
isn't what it claims to be.

Intelligence has been unable
to confirm

what type of aircraft it is,

and whether or not it poses
a threat to NATO security.

We've got to get there quickly, make
sure that we've got good

intelligence on it
and we know what it is.

What we have seen before
is there might be other aircraft

with it that haven't been declared

and that air traffic
aren't aware of.

Intelligence from NATO is guiding
Moz towards the Russian aircraft.

There could be extra Russian
fighters acting as escorts

that are attached to the aircraft

and the only way we'll know
is by getting close enough

for our radar to pick them up and to
then visually identify them as well.

Moz must now quickly establish
what the aircraft is,

and why it's flying so close
to NATO airspace.

You can't be thinking about
other things or being distracted,

you know, everything else
goes out the window.

Nothing else is important
at that point.

The only thing that matters is
doing the job properly and safely.

Definitely felt quite excited,

first time I'd seen a Russian
aircraft up close,

or any enemy aircraft like that.

So you definitely want to be
on your game, knowing that

they're filming you just the same as
you're filming them.

You don't want to be taken advantage
of in any Russian propaganda

or make any mistakes that are going
to embarrass you or NATO.

We don't know why the flight plan
said it was one type of aircraft

when we identified it as
a different type of aircraft.

I don't think there's any way
of us finding out or knowing

but that's just part of the job is the
visual identification of the aircraft.

It is a Russian air-to-air
refueller,

from its flight path and everything
it was doing, it was perfectly safe.

It's likely on a transit flight
going back

to where it was originally based.

All of this information
will get fed back to NATO.

Seeing a Russian aircraft up close,

there was definitely an excited
feeling in the cockpit,

big feeling of pride that
I finally got to do the job.

Yeah, it was cool.

Finally kind of
at the leading edge

after all the years
of training and hard work.

Definitely feels like
it's paying off.

In the North Atlantic,
Poseidon trainee Ross

must locate two more target vessels

to stand any chance
of becoming front line capable.

Fail, and he'll have to repeat
the entire eight-month course.

Ross has now successfully located
two out of the three targets...

...but he still has one left to find,

whilst flying just 500 feet
above sea level in poor weather.

There are standards for a reason.

Yeah, it's pretty nerve-racking,
it's pretty tense,

there's a lot riding on it.

Doing this job for real we'd go out
looking for Russian vessels.

It's a really important job.
It could be the difference

of winning or losing a conflict,
if it ever came down to it.

The Poseidon jet has climbed
to try to give the trainees

a better chance
of finding the last target,

but time is in short supply.

Trying to find gaps in clouds
can be really quite testing

and there is definitely pressure
to perform,

especially with an instructor
breathing down your neck.

The weather conditions
have deteriorated further.

The instructors are left no choice
but to abort the test early.

We didn't find everything,

so it does really beg the question,
have we done enough to pass?

It's been a long, long slog
from when I started basic training

up until this point.

Right, guys, we had some challenges
with the weather to deal with,

still managed to find
two of those targets

and, yeah,
it went really quite well.

We'll be recommending to OC 201

that you're given the LCR Op Cap.
So, well done, congratulations.

Ross and his fellow students can now

officially fly
on front line missions

in any of Lossiemouth's
nine Poseidon jets.

Well done. Well done, Charlie.
Thank you. Excellent.

One of the proudest days of my life.

I'm serving my country.

I'm sure I'IL learn to love
the colour eventually.

All that remains is for Ross
to be awarded his wings

for 120 Squadron.

Our badges have arrived guys.
Oh, the valuable cargo.

Welcome, everybody, that's the first
thing, and I am aware that

I'm here between you guys and girls

and the bar
so I'll keep this nice and short.

So everyone in this room has
contributed to this

in one way, shape or form.

Sergeant Ross Macleod.

Cheers, sir. Thank you very much.
Cheers.

It's really nice to look around at
the people that you've just done it

with and think, actually, you know,
we kind of... We did this all together.

It's the start of us being able
to get on the front line

and do the job
that we all joined to do.

Fucking hell, it is nippy out here.
Jesus!

So we've just had
an alpha scramble,

they've launched and obviously now
they're currently in the air

so I'm getting ready for when it
comes back down to pin it up.

After successfully completing
his first Russian intercept,

junior pilot Moz
is returning to base.

When we do have a tango, obviously
we know it's coming, normally,

so you're ready for it,

but when it's an alpha,
like this afternoon's alpha,

we had no intention of going up.

Everyone's just keen
to get involved on them

so when it does happen,
everyone wants to be around

and that's when you have every man
and his dog coming down to watch.

It's definitely
an intense experience.

First time that I'd seen
a Russian aircraft up close.

Or any enemy aircraft like that.

It was just very satisfying to me
to have done the job properly.

How does your first
live scramble compare

to your training scrambles you've
done so far? Yeah, it was awesome.

It's different, isn't it?
The heart's going a bit

the adrenaline's definitely pumping
so, yeah, good trip.

Well, good job, nice one, first
intercept. Brilliant. Thank you.

Nice one.

I'm so glad Moz
got his scramble as well.

Because that's his first ever
alpha scramble

which is a huge, huge moment
for him.

It definitely feels like
a pretty significant moment,

yeah, first actual alpha scramble,
yeah, it was cool.

Definitely a big feeling of pride.

Probably tell my parents at some
point and, yeah, I'm sure

they'll tell the rest of the family

and I'll drop it into conversation
with my friends when I get home.

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