United Kingdom calls on France & Canada to track down alleged Russian sub

The British, French and Canadians are searching the seas off Scotland for a Russian submarine detected off the northern coast 10 days ago, reports the Australian.

A Royal Navy frigate and a hunter-killer submarine have also been trying to find the elusive sub. Using RAF bases across the country, US and British forces conducted long-range patrols with radar-mounted aircraft that were able to hit U-boats cruising on the surface before they had a chance to submerge.

Last month, The NY Times reported that Russian subs and spy ships had been spotted along undersea fiber-optic cable routes, while Sweden has repeatedly claimed its waters were violated by Russian subs in recent years.

The RAF now has no maritime patrol planes of its own, but the BBC are reporting that the lack of aircraft is likely to be addressed in the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The search for the Russian vessel intensified over the weekend, as another French Atlantique and a Canadian aircraft were both sent to RAF Lossiemouth to joint the hunt.

According to the Telegraph's report, one of France's Atlantique 2 maritime patrol planes has been called in to help in the search and has been doing so for 10 days. "We do not discuss the detail of maritime operations", a Ministry of Defense spokesman said. The United Kingdom reportedly asked it's allies to contribute maritime patrol aircraft to the search because it is now without any sub-hunting planes.

The British government announced Monday that it plans to purchase nine new "submarine hunter" Boeing P8 maritime patrol aircraft, which are equipped with torpedoes, sonar buoys and a suite of sensors.