Thanks, Mr Putin!
10,000 new jobs and £400m investment at RAF base – to help counter Russian planes probing UK airspace
A SCOTS RAF base is set to welcome hundreds more personnel and millions of pounds of new investment.
RAF Lossiemouth in Moray is one of the UK’s busiest stations and is set for significant expansion – creating up to 10,000 jobs in the wider Scottish economy.
The move comes as fighter jets from the base have increasingly scrambled to intercept Russian aircraft, with the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, keen to show off the nation’s military might.
Jets were called into action last month, when two Russian long-range bombers approached UK airspace.
Aircraft were previously dispatched from RAF Lossiemouth after Russian jets entered UK airspace in May 2017.
And in February last year, nuclear-capable Blackjack bombers flew perilously close to UK airspace, forcing RAF jets to be scrambled to escort the aircraft away.
Air Vice-Marshal Ross Paterson, Scotland’s most senior RAF officer, said more than 400 extra staff would be heading to Lossiemouth in the next few years. The base is set to house the RAF’s newest aircraft – the P8Poseidon Maritime Patrol craft – when they arrive in 2019, and £400million has been allocated to Lossiemouth to help with the expansion. There are already 2,000 workers stationed at the base. The new fleet is designed for long-range anti-submarine warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Speaking to the Forces Network website, Air Vice-Marshal Paterson said: ‘The first aircraft will come in 2019. Ahead of that, there is a huge amount of work to be done and that’s hugely significant.
‘There’s a lot of work to do but over 400 people in time coming up to Lossie and £400million being spent there. And this is in a context of defence spending of about £1.5billion each year, with defencerelated expenditure creating 10,000 Scottish jobs.
‘Lossiemouth is a huge main operating base. We’re looking at about 2,000 people there now and that’s going to grow.’
Meanwhile, the UK’s Northernmost radar station, RAF Saxa Vord, will reopen in the Shetland Islands after 12 years.
Air Vice-Marshal Paterson said: ‘We are reopening the radar hub there as part of our defence of UK air space, where we mount a quick reaction alert.’