Reports Of Russian Submarine Spotted Of Scottish Coast

The RAF is searching for a Russian submarine believed to have been off the coast of Scotland for at least 10 days.

French, rather than British, maritime patrol aircraft were last night off the Scottish coast hunting a Russian submarine – a legacy of Britain’s last defence review.

Over the weekend another French Atlantique aircraft and a Canadian aircraft joined the mission.

Nine new P8-Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft set to be purchased, replacing the capability lost when Nimrods were axed in the last SDSR, no long leaving the RAF wanting when instances such as those above occur off the British Isles.

Britain’s defence ministry did not reveal any details of the search operation, but confirmed for The Telegraph that allied planes based out of Moray Firth were assisting the Navy.

According to the report, the Russian sub was spotted more than a week ago and has yet to be found amid fears that it might be trying to spy on the UK’s Trident program – a sub-based nuclear warhead delivery system stationed in Scotland.

With North Atlantic Treaty Organisation warning the trend of Russian submarine patrols rising by half in the past year, the need for an island nation such as the United Kingdom to have this capability is paramount. Using RAF bases across the country, US and British forces conducted long-range patrols with radar-mounted aircraft that were able to hit U-boats cruising on the surface before they had a chance to submerge. “We do not discuss the detail of maritime operation”, the spokesman of the UK’s defense ministry said.

25 that Russian submarines and spy ships were “aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry nearly all global Internet communications”.