EXCLUSIVE: Arise Sir Tom! 'Top Gun' Star Cruise 'Waging Secret Campaign' to Get a Knighthood — Just Like David Beckham

Tom Cruise has gushed to pals he feels "very privileged’ to be part of British life" – and RadarOnline.com can reveal his soppy statements are part of an "ultra-intense" and "war-like" campaign to land himself one of the U.K.'s highest honors.

The Mission: Impossible star, 62, is said to be "gagging" for an honorary knighthood in the upcoming King’s Birthday Honours list, with sources telling us he has a "whole team" working on the ambition to become 'Sir Tom.'

"He's been laying the groundwork for years," one insider claimed. "There's a feeling that now may be the right moment."

Cruise, a longtime supporter of British film and a self-professed Anglophile, would join a small group of Americans to receive the honorary title – among them Steven Spielberg, Angelina Jolie and Bill Gates.

Though non-British citizens cannot be called 'Sir,' they are considered to hold the title once they have been knighted.

The award is a massively significant symbolic recognition by the monarch, and can be given for contributions to UK arts, science, charity, or military service.

In Cruise’s case, his decades of championing British filmmaking and his close ties with the Royal Family may now be paying off.

He personally escorted Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, to the London premiere of Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, and also took part in the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee concert in Windsor later that year.

During a television interview at the time, he said: "It is a wonderful event and I feel very privileged to be here. I was very honoured."

The actor added: "I love the history of England, and I just have great respect for the Queen... she is just a woman I greatly admire. She is someone who has tremendous dignity. I admire her devotion and what she has accomplished is historic."

Cruise also recounted a memorable dinner with Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace in 2017.

"He was telling me a wonderful story about how he got the first helicopter into Buckingham Palace during (the Queen's) coronation," he said. "I was this close to going, 'I'd like to land a helicopter, if you ever need a helicopter, someone to pick you up, I think I could put it right there.'"

According to entertainment sources, Cruise's huge visibility in U.K. public life is no accident.

"He knows exactly what it takes to be noticed by the establishment," our insider said. "He's put in the face time, he's hosted events, he’s made himself indispensable to the British film industry. It's all part of the long game."

The actor, who has filmed several Mission: Impossible installments in the UK and regularly works with British crews, has already been awarded a British Film Institute Fellowship for services to UK cinema.

It's the same award given to British-American director Christopher Nolan shortly before it was announced the 54-year-old would be knighted.

In a statement released by the BFI, Cruise said: ‘I have been making films in the UK for over 40 years and have no plans to stop. The UK is home to incredibly talented professionals... I'm grateful for all the BFI has done to support UK filmmaking and this incredible art form we share."

Cruise lives between a Knightsbridge apartment and a country estate in Kent, and often pilots his own helicopter out of Battersea, London.

And as for the potential controversy over his Scientology faith when it comes to him being lined up for a knighthood, sources close to the Palace suggest it is "not viewed as an obstacle" to an honorary title.