First Poseidon submarine hunter lands at RAF Lossiemouth

The first Poseidon jet has landed at RAF Lossiemouth following a £75m revamp of the station’s runways.

The submarine hunter – named the City of Elgin – parked outside a new £132m facility, which will house the pilots, engineers and personnel who will operate the Moray station’s aircraft.

Nine Poseidon MRA1 aircraft have been ordered, the first of which landed on UK soil for the first time in February 2020.

Since then, crews from the CXX Squadron have been securing the seas around the country on operational missions.

Moray: The station's runways were given a £75m revamp. — Moray: The station’s runways were given a £75m revamp. Email

Poseidon is a submarine hunter which can locate, identify and track potentially hostile vessels as they operate close to UK waters.

Its radar is also able to detect and track ships above the waves.

The jets have a communications suite which enables the intelligence it gathers to be passed to commanders whether they are in the air, on a ship, on the ground, or back at RAF Lossiemouth.

The 54 Squadron has been training new pilots and weapons systems operators on the platform as 400 additional military personnel will be moving to Moray to fly and operate the aircraft.

Armed: All Typhoon and Poseidon operations will return to the base on Friday. Email

Following the completion of the runways, the first Typhoons – whose crews carry out quick reaction alert (QRA) missions – returned from Leuchars in Fife on Monday.

Live-armed Typhoons are often called into action against Russian military aircraft operating near Nato airspace.

Here's our favourite photos from today's historic moment… a @RoyalAirForce @P8A_PoseidonRAF touching down at RAF Lossiemouth for the first time!

Now that the main runway has been resurfaced, we are back in business on home turf!

1/#PoseidonArrival pic.twitter.com/Pa75QGfaVC
— RAF Lossiemouth (@RAFLossiemouth) October 13, 2020

On Tuesday, group captain Chris Layden, station commander of RAF Lossiemouth, said: “Today is a proud moment for Team Lossie, ushering in a new era for the station delivering combat air power and maritime patrol operations over and around the United Kingdom.

“Yesterday I had the privilege of landing the first Typhoon on our newly resurfaced runways, and today I had the pleasure of welcoming in the first Poseidon to its permanent home in Moray.

“This is just the beginning of our expansion and modernisation as one of the RAF’s most strategically important stations in the United Kingdom.”

All Typhoon and Poseidon operations are to be back at their permanent home at Lossiemouth on Friday.