A THINK-TANK has warned that a defence force in an independent Scotland would be "less comprehensive and effective" than the UK armed forces.

The Scotland Institute said in a report that Scotland would have to rely on a scaled-back defence force, which would struggle to recruit and retain personnel, with a detrimental knock-on effect on jobs and economic growth.

Defence and Security in an Independent Scotland was produced by a panel including senior armed-forces personnel, defence academics, former secretaries of defence and senior officials from the MOD, Nato and the EU.

It chairman, Major-General Andrew Mackay CBE, who commanded a task force in Afghanistan and served in the army for 27 years, wrote in the foreword: "I cannot see how slicing up a competent and well-established military will aid either the United Kingdom or an independent Scotland.

"Indeed I see very real risks to the people of Scotland, be it from the loss of jobs and the local economic impact that the inevitable removal of the Faslane naval base would bring, the huge costs necessary to start building the armed forces from afresh, the loss of access to sensitive intelligence materials and the inevitable dilution in the quality and number of the armed forces of this small island, which to date have had such a profound effect upon the course of world events."

The report also suggests that a post-independence Scotland would be more vulnerable to terrorist and cyber attack because it would need time to establish an intelligence body capable of dealing with these threats.

Dr Azeem Ibrahim, a Glasgow-born businessman and executive chairman of the Scotland Institute, who co-wrote the report, said: "We find that whilst an independent Scotland would, in some limited form, be able to provide for its defence, the manner of that provision is likely to be less comprehensive and effective than had Scotland remained in the UK."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "An independent Scotland will have first-class conventional forces which will play a full role in defending the country and co-operating with international partners, but we will not waste billions of pounds on Trident nuclear weapons.

But Labour's shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy MP, said: "The report shows the SNP's plans to be fundamentally flawed.

SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson said independence would protect defence jobs and stop "Whitehall making bad decisions on our behalf".

"Personnel numbers in Scotland are at a record low after disproportionate cuts compared to the rest of the UK, and Scottish taxpayers contribute far more to the UK defence budget than is actually spent in Scotland," he added.