The United States government has established its first military site in Scotland since the 1990s, prompting fears of a “catastrophic” situation under an incoming Donald Trump administration.
The new base in Lossiemouth, Moray, opened in May. It marks the return of the US military to Scotland since it left after the end of the Cold War three decades ago.
The US navy helped fund the construction of facilities for its Poseidon P8 anti-submarine spy and war planes at the site, working alongside UK aircraft.
According to one expert, the new US facilities were “profoundly concerning” given Trump’s return to the White House in January.
Campaigners criticised Scotland’s renewed “incorporation into the US nuclear war fighting capacity”.
The Ferret can also reveal that the Scottish Government was not consulted about stationing US war planes at Lossiemouth.
The UK Ministry of Defence insisted that it was “false” to suggest that there was a new US military “base” in Scotland. There was a US “presence” at Lossiemouth, with a “US naval detachment”, it said.
Accommodation and a large plant to wash the Poseidon aircraft were built for the US navy as part of a £350m upgrade of Lossiemouth, which is the main operating base for the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) in Scotland.
The upgrade also included resurfacing a runway, refurbishing a hangar and building new fire-fighting facilities. The RAF has been operating nine Poseidons from Lossiemouth since 2020.
They have now been joined by a US squadron of the aircraft, to work together monitoring the seas between Greenland, Ireland and Norway for Russian submarines.
According to the US navy, Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft are armed with non-nuclear torpedoes and cruise missiles for attacking submarines underwater.
They also carry a range of sophisticated surveillance equipment designed to track submarines.
US presence a ‘strategic enhancement’
The US Sixth Fleet, which covers Europe and Africa, described stationing the planes at Lossiemouth as a “significant development”. It was a “strategic enhancement” which would “bolster the operational interoperability” with the RAF.
US naval commanding officer, captain Aaron Shoemaker, said: “These new facilities will play a crucial role in enhancing the collective readiness, responsiveness, deployability, integration, and interoperability of Poseidon forces and our ability to maintain aircraft and support operations in the north Atlantic.”
From the 1960s Scotland was home to a string of US military bases, including nuclear armed submarines at the Holy Loch on the Clyde, nuclear mines at Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre, and an extensive signals intelligence network including Edzell in Aberdeenshire.
After the Cold War ended, US forces left Holy Loch in 1992, Machrihanish in 1995 and Edzell in 1997.
The return of the US military at Lossiemouth has been greeted with consternation in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election as US president.
“The US Navy’s return to running military facilities in Scotland for the first time since the end of the Cold War is profoundly concerning,” said Duncan Campbell, a defence expert and author of a seminal book about US military bases in the UK in the 1980s.
The plan to use Lossiemouth to support the US navy’s anti-submarine warfare had been hatched years ago, he told The Ferret. “It appears to anticipate renewed naval or anti-submarine activity against Russia in the north east Atlantic.”
The RAF was now working together with the US navy at Lossiemouth and “relying massively on US defence systems of every type” with “extremely integrated” intelligence, Campbell added.
“After this month’s US elections, the situation appears catastrophic both for opponents and supporters of a new US presence in Scotland. Both must fear whose side or sides Trump will take, after openly encouraging Putin to attack NATO states.”
Campbell, a veteran investigative journalist, is currently working on a new edition of his 1983 book, War Plan UK, which revealed the UK’s secret network of nuclear civil defence bunkers. There would be “major revelations” about Scotland, he promised.
The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament argued that the US presence at Lossiemouth was “a new twist in Scotland’s incorporation into the US nuclear-war-fighting capacity”.
The campaign’s chair, Lynn Jamieson, said: “It puts yet another target on our backs without any say-so from Scotland’s citizens. Scottish and British people’s real security needs are compromised by entanglement with US military strategy.”
She highlighted reports that the US was also planning to bring nuclear weapons back to Lakenheath in Suffolk, 15 years after they had been taken away. Westminster allowed the US to use UK bases as part of the “special relationship” between the two countries.
“People should demand the end of this special relationship now, before any of Trump’s next outrageous acts involve US ‘assets’ at Lossiemouth or Lakenheath,” Jamieson added.
“The UK remains complicit in extending the US war fighting capacity – a capacity which always includes the possibility of launching nuclear war. A US president can do that without consulting anyone.”
The Scottish Greens argued that Trump posed “a threat to global security”. A close military relationship with his presidency would mean “instability and chaos”, the party claimed.
“A lot of people will be rightly concerned to see parts of our country being used as a US outpost. The US has a long history of hypocritical relationships with human rights abusing regimes and tyrants and the projection of power through immoral and outdated nuclear weapons,” said Greens co-leader and former minister, Patrick Harvie MSP.
“Now it also threatens to reward Vladimir Putin for his war of aggression against Ukraine, which will leave other European countries asking who is next in its sights.”
Scottish Government not consulted on US presence
The Scottish Government pointed out that UK defence policy was not its responsibility and was reserved to Westminster. “The Scottish Government was not consulted on the upgrade of Ministry of Defence facilities at RAF Lossiemouth,” it told The Ferret.
The Ministry of Defence referred to the new US facilities when it outlined the completion of a major six-year upgrade of RAF Lossiemouth in July 2024. “As NATO allies of the UK, the US navy presence – with their own maritime patrol aircraft – provides a boost to the defence of the UK and Europe,” it said.
“Their new facilities were funded by the US navy and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), and the RAF worked closely with them to ensure the plans fit their needs.”
The Ministry of Defence dismissed claims that the US had a new military “base” at Lossiemouth as “false”. It said there was a “US navy detachment” based there.
“We recently completed a six-year, £350 million project to modernise and upgrade RAF Lossiemouth,” said a ministry spokesperson.
“As one of our closest NATO allies, we continually operate alongside US forces. The US navy maritime patrol aircraft presence at RAF Lossiemouth enables our forces to seamlessly deliver maritime security, improving the defence of the UK and NATO.”
Cover image of US Poseidon P8 thanks to iStock/mjf795.
Note: The first paragraph was slightly changed at 14.05 on 14 November 2024 to more accurately reflect what was said.
So Trump and Vance are not in the White House yet. Therefore any presence is instructed by the current president Joe Biden and his VP Kamala Harris. Please try to get your facts right before posting such alarmist stories.
The only catastrophe is the clickbait headline! If its been opened since May what has that got to do with Trump? Stop the drama.
Very biased and alarmist article considering the current wars began in and are funded by Biden-Harris administration. OK, so you hate Trump, just write that next time…
Trump has not started any wars and is proud of the fact. This happened under the Biden administration.
Wow – what a lefty website.
This biased and selective reporting is really appalling. The inter-operability of UK, US and German anti-submarine capability is a very good thing and Lossiemouth is of significant strategic importance to defending our interests from a very credible threat.