THE JET SET

STRIDING through the airbase, flanked by fighter jets and with his blond 'tache, young flight lieutenant Josh is aware of the comparisons to Goose, Tom Cruise's sidekick in Top Gun.

- SARA WALLIS

Aged 31, Josh is 11 Squadron's youngest airman, and is proud that he already has the fighter pilot look.

He said: "It's always been a fighter pilot thing to have a moustache, even in the Second World War. My wife said she liked it as well."

Josh qualified to fly Typhoons only a few months ago, but is about to face off a Russian threat in the skies.

Meanwhile, Jenni may be responsible for hundreds of recruits on a Romanian air base, but she is holding in the tears as she video calls her five-year-old daughter back in the UK.

And 23-year-old weapons technician Rhyun Nagar notes how his job loading bombs on to fighter jets means he always smells of fuel "like my own aftershave".

This is the real Top Gun, where extraordinary men and women in the RAF face down threats and carry out audacious missions.

A new Channel 4 series, Top Guns: Inside the RAF, goes inside their world.

With tensions rising in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the RAF is involved in increasingly dangerous operations, from spy missions over Syria to strikes against terrorists in Yemen, and intercepting Iranian drones threatening Israel.

For four months, RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus is home to almost 150 members of RAF Coningsby's 11 Squadron. Josh said: "This is the first time I've come away to go on combat operations. It's nerve-racking, but very exciting."