The east coast is to bear witness to one of the largest tactical military training exercises Europe has seen.
More than 40 warships from the UK and its European allies, along with 30 fixed-wing aircraft and 30 helicopters, will storm the east coast in a massive training exercise starting on Friday morning.
Royal Marines from 42 Commando will also storm the beach at Barry Buddon via helicopter to simulate landing on the shores of a hostile nation.
The exercise, codenamed Joint Warrior, will kick off at 10am and will aim to put Nato’s Response Force Task Group to the test through a series of manoeuvres across the east and west coast of Scotland over the next three weeks.
Commander of the UK Task Group, Commodore Paddy McAlpine, said: “During Joint Warrior we will practise fighting at sea as well as fighting from the sea.
“We’ll practise against a demanding air, surface and submarine threat, entering a hostile environment and then deliver our landing force of Royal and Dutch marines to the right area.
“Exercises such as Joint Warrior provide us with the scale, diversity and pace that we need to maintain our capability as the naval contingency element of the response force task group.”
The Courier has been granted special access to join the operation. Look out for Martin Dalziel’s report in Saturday’s paper.