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Keeping British waters safe requires a £2billion fleet of submarine hunter aircraft, defence chiefs will tell the next government.

The RAF is calling for 12 planes and surveillance drones to monitor our coast in the wake of the renewed threat from Russia.

Aircraft, ships and subs under orders from Russian leader Vladimir Putin have been probing British ­territory almost on a weekly basis for two years.

Britain has been without airborne maritime surveillance aircraft since Nimrod was scrapped in 2010.

The £150million US-Made Boeing Poseidon P8 is at the top of the RAF’s wish-list.

Its radar can sweep an area the size of the UK every 10 seconds, searching for enemy ships or submarines. Equipped with a lethal array of weapon, it can also be used for intelligence gathering and search and rescue missions.

(Image: PA)

Since then Britain has been forced to rely on Merlin helicopters and Royal Navy Frigates to defend Britain’s costal waters.

Defence sources have claimed that the “gap” in Britain’s maritime surveillance has allowed Russian submarines to cruise past the UK in international waters and at times enter British waters undetected.

One senior defence source said that the cancellation of the Nimrod programme had effectively given Russian submarines a “free pass” to enter UK waters.

He said: “They have been detected more by chance that anything else because we have no means of monitoring their activity.”