DONALD TRUMP is ploughing £63 million into a Scots airbase to help US spy planes hunt Russian submarines.
The US government has revealed the investment at Lossiemouth, with echoes of the 1990 spy thriller film The Hunt For Red October.
America has reported a huge rise in the activities of Russian submarines in the seas around Scotland, amid growing tension between the West and the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin as experts warn of a new Cold War.
The money will go towards a refurbishment of the runway at the Moray base, including more hangars and accommodation for US navy personnel, to establish Lossiemouth as a major Nato base.
Work has already started on an expansion to Lossiemouth to accommodate nine of the Boeing P-8 Poseidon submarine hunters ordered by the RAF.
Norway has bought the same US-built planes and all three nations will use Lossiemouth as a base for keeping track of Russian activity in the Atlantic and North Sea.
The investment marks a turnaround in fortunes for the base, which was threatened with closure less than eight years ago.
Commodore Andrew Betton, commander of the UK’s aircraft carrier fleet, warned Russian subs have been their at most active in the North Atlantic since the Cold War.
Earlier this month, the Defence Select Committee concluded Britain’s Arctic capability to meet a challenge posed by President Putin was “on thin ice”.
There have been increased reports, the committee found, of Russian subs trying to record the sounds of subs carrying Trident missiles as they leave Faslane.
Defence analyst Tim Ripley said: “This means you will regularly see UK, US and Norwegian P-8 aircraft flying in and out of Lossiemouth, which is establishing itself as the European base for maritime aircraft patrols of the North Atlantic.
“The threat from Russia could not be any clearer now and this is part of the reaction. For the US, they are effectively creating a forward command base where they can have everything they need there without having to fly back and forth to the States. As the UK is buying its P-8s from the US, there will also be the advantage to the UK of having all the expertise of dealing with aircraft in the same base.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel