Defence chiefs are being forced to draft in planes from Nato allies because they no longer have the ability to patrol Scotland’s seas, it has been claimed.
A UK Government minister has confirmed that the US, France, Norway and Canada have all sent maritime surveillance aircraft to RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and RAF Leuchars since December.
The SNP said it exposed the reality that Britain has been “relying on the goodwill” of allies to protect its own waters since scrapping the Nimrod MRA4 contract in 2010 a decision which cost taxpayers £3.4 billion and led to the closure of RAF Kinloss.
The capability gap was highlighted in December 2011 when the Russian navy’s biggest warship, the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, appeared to arrive undetected in the Moray Firth seeking shelter from a storm.
Moray MP Angus Robertson, the SNP’s defence spokesman, quizzed ministers on the use of planes belonging to Nato allies this week.
Armed Forces Minister Andrew Robathan said: “The United States, Canada, France and Norway have sent maritime patrol aircraft to RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Leuchars since December 2012 as part of joint exercises.”
The aircraft included P-3C Orion, CP-140 Aurora, and Atlantique 2.
Mr Robathan refused to detail any requests made by the UK to other Nato members for aircraft to patrol UK waters in order to detect submarines, saying “the release of this information would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces”.
He did reveal that such aircraft belonging to allies had participated in nine separate training exercises since March 2010.