Do the SNP believe in independence?

Well, not really - if you look at what Angus Robertson has been saying.

described the news that the Joint Strike Fighter would not be based at Lossiemouth as the "latest blow to the beleaguered defence establishment in Scotland".

Now, this isn't a problem, is it? Unless you are stupid enough to believe that, come independence, all MoD personnel and materiel north of the border would simply stay there to become the HM's Scottish Armed Forces. (Ed notes: and that there wouldn't be a huge exodus south between a successful-for-them vote and the throwing off of the shackles of Westminster oppression) Of course, Angus may indeed be. He is a politician, after all. But, of course, the SNP want Trident to move south (and the hunter-killers would follow ...)

So, why Typhoon and not JSF?

Simple. There is sense in placing some of your Air Defence forces at the extremities of your country - even if they are howling wilderness. Shortens your reaction times to any incursion or overflight. Ground attack aircraft? Unless there is an obvious existential threat from your neighbours, you base them where it is convenient for logistics and move them when needed.

And there simply aren't enough Scots wanting to join the UK Armed Forces - and this is also why the Scottish regiments seem to have been harder hit than others.

Terry Kelly is rarely right - but he does have one point. The SNP are no less a single-issue party than UKIP. And a lot less consistent with the effects around winning their pet issue than Farage's merry mob.