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.”