From Kaye Nicolson, the Press and Journal:  RAF Kinloss is preparing to host Europe’s largest Nato training exercise for the last time before the airfield closes in August. 

Personnel from allied Nato countries will travel to Moray for this year’s first Joint Warrior exercise, which was also held at the Moray base in October.

The American P3, French Atlantique and Canadian Aurora maritime patrol aircraft will be based at RAF Kinloss for the two-week training programme, which begins on April 4. …

Joint Warrior is held in the UK because of its complex geography and oceanography. Crews will be put to the test in anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. They will be given intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions against Royal Navy and other Nato ships which are operating in the seas off the Hebrides and Minch. …

The exercise has been organised by the Joint Tactical Exercise Planning Staff (JTEPS), based at Northwood HQ in London. …

The UK government announced in October that it was closing RAF Kinloss. The airfield will close on July 31 and the base is expected to be handed back to Defence Estates by April 1, 2014.  (graphic: RAF)

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