FASLANE submarine base and the nearby Coulport missile depot are vulnerable to a deadly mortar or suicide boat attack, a nuclear weapons expert warns in a new book.

Dr Brian Jamison says the geographical position of the two facilities makes them susceptible to an al-Qaeda attack, and claims that submarines are rarely escorted by armed patrol vessels.

In Securing That Which Makes Us Secure: Scotland’s Past, Present and Future With Trident, an extract of which is published in today’s Scotsman, Dr Jamison suggests security should be improved at Faslane and Coulport.

Faslane, on Gare Loch, leading into the Firth of Clyde, is home to four Trident nuclear-weapon carrying submarines and four submarines capable of carrying conventional weapons only. All eight are nuclear powered.

Dr Jamison, who works for the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies at the University of Southampton and who has spent five years studying Scotland’s involvement with the Trident nuclear missiles system, describes the risk of a warhead detonating in an attack as “vastly remote”.

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