'Concerning and embarrassing': Britain 'forced' to 'beg' NATO to help track suspected Russian sub off Scotland

Greg P. | 7:17 AM on December 10, 2014

Is there a new Cold War between the West and Russia? If so, our European allies might have a tiny problem. As in, they no longer have the resources to do something like track a suspected Russian submarine in their territorial waters:

Britain forced to ask Nato to track 'Russian submarine' in Scottish waters http://t.co/HytbEgMU7B by @benfarmerdt

— Telegraph Breaking News (@TelegraphNews) December 9, 2014

An excerpt from the piece linked above:

Britain called in Nato sea patrol planes to hunt for a suspected Russian submarine off Scotland last month, after the Government scrapped its own similar aircraft in defence cuts, it has been disclosed.

[…]

Britain scrapped its own maritime patrol aircraft after the cost cutting 2010 defence review, leading to warnings from defence chiefs that the country would be left reliant on others for aircraft to search its own waters.

Good thing NATO was there to help. But as Twitchy reported in early December, NATO has a funding problem and basically our NATO partners aren’t pulling their weight in terms of spending by each member on defense:

MP Julian Lewis: Sub chase shows "absolute necessity of ring fencing defence budget at least to NATO minimum of 2%" http://t.co/xL4hTp2y6f

— NATOSource (@NATOSource) December 9, 2014

Yep. And check out the anger from British Tweeters:

The UK needs NATO help to find a submarine off Scotland: http://t.co/Kx22JZssVg That's what comes of scrapping all our own patrol aircraft.

— Undiscovered Scotland (@UndisScot) December 10, 2014

Shambles at MoD as UK calls in NATO to search for a submarine because UK has no planes. Plenty of missiles though! http://t.co/FmuKfexnQJ

— Dr Paul Monaghan (@_PaulMonaghan) December 10, 2014