Cracked British troops downed 14 drones in their biggest nighttime attack of the Iran war.
Air defense troops in Iraq shot down drones with laser-guided Martlet missiles.
This brings their number to around 70 – while only five were shot down by British jets.
The latest firing came as Tehran increased the rate of its attacks.
A defense official said: “In the last few days, till last night, the rate of firing of ballistic missiles and one-sided attack weapons had decreased.
“Last night we saw that move again.”
Soldiers from the RAF Regiment were defending a base in Erbil in northern Iraq.
The defense source said: “In Erbil, where our British forces are active, they shot down 14 single-strike drones last night alone and that is the highest number they have shot down.”
He said the “rate of attacks” had returned to the pace seen before Eid.
The official stressed that the US was trying to destroy Iran’s weapons factories.
But he added: “We know from intelligence reports that the Iranians retain the capability to fire ballistic missiles, albeit at low rates initially. So do one-pronged attack drones.”
The RAF Regiment’s rocket launchers have a range of up to four miles.
They fire Martlet lightweight multi-role missiles that are designed to explode when approaching targets, shattering them with shrapnel.
Soldiers in Erbil have faced nightly bombardment since the US and Israel attacked Iran.
Ground based Rapid Sentry launchers are the “last line of defense” when high-tech jammers fail.
MoD bought them secretly after Russia in 2022.
They use radar and “ultra long-range thermal imaging cameras” to detect incoming drones. Radio sensors can also detect transmissions between drones and their controllers.
Rapid Sentry launchers fire the same supersonic LMM missiles that are mounted on the wings of Navy Wildcat helicopter gunships patrolling the eastern Mediterranean.
The superlight missiles weigh 13 kg and can travel 1.5 times the speed of sound.
Defense Secretary John Healey said that the RAF regiment had been active almost every night of the war.
Top brass fired additional missiles during the following days of the war.
At least one French soldier was killed and dozens of American and French soldiers were wounded in Iranian attacks in Iraq.
Air Commodore Paul Hamilton, Commandant of the RAF Regiment, said: “We always have options – detect, disrupt or defeat.”
He added: “Rapid Sentry provides us with a reliable kinetic defense when the drone cannot be defeated electronically.”
The RAF Regiment’s soldiers are drawn from 2 Force Protection Wing based at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire.
The RAF Regiment said its experts were “proactively detecting, tracking and neutralizing aerial threats, working closely with coalition partners to ensure personnel safety and continuity of operations”.
The Defense Ministry said it was working “closely with Ukraine” to apply lessons on how to enhance air defense in high-threat environments.
Five different types of aircraft – Typhoon and Lightning jets and Wildcat and Merlin helicopters and Voyager refuelers – conducted “defensive air patrols” over the eastern Mediterranean.
