WATCH: Air Vice-Marshal Ross Paterson On The Future Of RAF Lossiemouth

Scotland's most senior RAF officer says the amount of personnel based at one of the country's busiest air bases is going to increase.

Air Vice-Marshal Ross Paterson has been looking ahead to the expansion of RAF stations in Scotland, including RAF Lossiemouth.

Pilots at RAF Lossiemouth defend the UK’s northern airspace, and they were called into action just two weeks ago to escort two Russian TU-160 Blackjacks.

We spoke to Air Vice Marshal Ross Paterson about the base’s planned expansion:

“Half of the air defence units are based at Lossiemouth - we’re currently looking at about 2,000 people, and that’s going to grow.

“People love being at Lossie - they don’t want to leave once they come up here.

“There’s a lot of work to do, over 400 people will be coming up to Lossie, £400m being spent there in a context of £1.5bn each year in terms of defence expenditure.

“We’re reopening the radar hub there as part of our defence of UK airspace, it’s an integral part of us showing defence of the nation.