Intel gathering

Revealed: Top-of-the-range RAF spy plane gathering intelligence for ISIS bombing raids

The new jet means "no-one, except the US, matches our efforts" to conduct intelligence operations over ISIS-territory, the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said.

More than 80 per cent of the aircraft's missions have been in direct support of military operations by Britain and her allies.

Another battlefield surveillance jet, the RAF Sentinel aircraft, also took on its 100th flight over extremist territory last week.