The most dangerous part of his job was driving to work. But a former RAF drone pilot has spoken of the mental trauma suffered by those who kill Britain’s enemies from thousands of miles away.
Ministry of Defence figures show that up to 20 personnel involved in the armed forces drone programme have been diagnosed with PTSD since 2011.
And around 3,700 missions have killed more than 1,000 terrorists in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan since 2007. Today it emerged the RAF pulled off four successful air strikes against IS just this month.
The MoD insisted steps were taken to ensure civilians were not at risk. But the exhausting mental toll of tracking targets and seeing kills can have a devastating mental impact on drone operators.