Sir, - After leading the fight to save RAF Lossiemouth it was encouraging to see Moray MP Angus Robertson recently returning to the question of long-range maritime cover, the scandalous loss of the Nimrod fleet and the imminent closure of RAF Kinloss.

There is no doubt that Britain's maritime patrol gap is now vast and cannot be covered by the slower and much less able Hercules and Cessna fixed-wing assets based in England. What is more unacceptable is the criminal waste of taxpayers' money in the decommissioning of the Nimrod MR2 fleet, the inexplicable scrapping of the replacement MRA4 on the eve of coming into service, the loss of the modern and geographically well-located RAF Kinloss and, perhaps most outrageous, the utter waste of Nimrod Force maritime skills and experience that has left former RAF Kinloss aircrew friends scattered around the world in civilian life doing jobs that range from flying for airlines such as Emirates to selling logs in Moray.

A criminal waste of military talent.

While the UK is almost alone in having such poor long-range maritime cover, India, to whom Britain donates many millions of pounds in charitable aid, has on order eight of the Nimrod's less-able American cousin, the Boeing 737 airliner-based P-8 Poseidon, with an option for four more. The Gulf States are considering a similar purchase, along with Australia.

Britain needs maritime cover. It is a nonsense and a national disgrace not to have such a capability.

We are a maritime nation with major oil, fishing and commercial shipping interests. We have a torturous coastline that attracts hundreds of Costa Concordia-sized cruise liners every year, including that wrecked ship's sister Costa Magica which calls at Invergordon.

Since the RAF Kinloss Nimrod fleet was lost we have been lucky not to suffer a major shipping, oil industry or commercial passenger aircraft loss at sea. We have also been fortunate militarily that, until recently, Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic, which the Nimrod and its crews were highly trained to hunt, has been sluggish. That is now showing signs of increased activity - and we are blind.

Our luck cannot hold, and we need to have meaningful airborne long-range maritime cover based in Scotland to protect our nation and for anyone who finds themselves in peril at sea. - Yours etc,

David Morgan

4 Beechway,

Forres.