The SNP has accused of the UK failing in its “bread and butter” defence of Scotland’s seas amid reports of a tenfold rise in Russian submarine activity.

The party’s latest criticism came after a powerful House of Commons committee said Britain’s Arctic capability to meet a challenge posed by President Vladimir Putin was on “thin ice”.

Martin Docherty-Hughes MP said UK defence thinking was ignoring the Arctic and the “High North”. He said: “For a nation like Scotland, the security of the North Atlantic and High North should be our bread and butter, yet again we see it being overlooked - indeed in the UK government’s most recent Defence Review it was not mentioned once.”

Mr Docherty-Hughes is a member of the Commons defence committee which just completed a report in to rising military activity in polar and north Atlantic regions, not least as global warming threatens to open up sea routes.

The committee concluded the UK would be unable to do so as “platforms and capabilities which might have a role in the High North are heavily committed elsewhere, and with the Modernising Defence programme still to be completed, there is no indication of new resources being applied.”

Mr Docherty-Hughes highlighted what he called an “inadequate number of platforms, such as the case of the new Boeing Poseidon P-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft”, which are to be stationed at a new £100m base at RAF Lossiemouth in in Moray.

These new planes, similar to the 737s that form much of Europe’s low-cost airline fleet, are designed, among other things, to protect Trident nuclear submarines from underwater threats.

There have been increased reports, the committee found, of Russian submarines trying to record the sounds of Trident missile boats as they leave Faslane.

Mr Docherty-Hughes said Britain would have to remain reliant on contributions from allies in order to adequately ensure the security of our own doorstep.

He said: “The Secretary of State himself admitted that there has been a ‘tenfold’ increase in Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic, and so the UK government is aware of the threat - one which also now encompasses the potential of interference in the undersea cables that carry so much information.

“If the UK government is unable to adequately participate in the security of the High North, then it shows their defence capability is on thin ice.”

In their report, On Thin Ice: UK Defence in the Arctic, the defence sub-committee identified the Arctic and High North as an area where Russia might seek to expand its presence and influence.

The Herald: Eurofighter Typhoon jets prepare to take off from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland

A Eurofighter at Lossiemouth

#Although the Arctic has traditionally been an area of low tension, the retreating ice sheet is making the Arctic more accessible to shipping and is exposing the region’s extensive natural resources to exploitation.

Alongside these broader changes, the sub-committee has noted an increase in military activity in the Arctic and High North that has been led by Russia.

This has included the construction and re-activation of manned bases along Russia’s Arctic coastline and on its islands on the edge of the Arctic Ocean; build-up of heavily armed, Arctic trained land forces near the borders of neighbouring states; the re-introduction of strategic bomber flights over Northern airspace, progressive installation of long range missile and air defence systems, and a marked increase in the level of naval activity that projects power from the Arctic into the North Atlantic.

The sub-committee’s view is that this build-up goes beyond what would be proportionate to a purely defensive posture and should be a matter of concern given Russia’s “aggressive and revisionist behaviour”.