PRESTWICK Airport is to take part in the Navy's Cyber War Games this week in a bid to protect warships and submarines against cyber attacks.

The training will be held during Joint Warrior, a major Nato exercise taking place in and around Scotland from March 26 to April, 6 including the base at Prestwick.

Exercise Joint Warrior is held twice a year - in spring and autumn. Military air crews will be flying out of HMS Gannet at Prestwick and RAF Lossiemouth in Moray. 

During the second of last year's exercises the Royal Navy staged Unmanned Warrior - its first major training exercise using drones.

It featured more than 50 vehicles, sensors and systems on the surface of the sea, underwater and in the air. Thousands of army, navy and air force personnel are expected to be involved this week across the country.

The Royal Navy has said Information Warrior 17 would "set the foundations" for cyber warfare in the future.

A spokesman added: "As our enemies become more technologically advanced, must we to combat these threats."
The exercise will involve: using technology to develop a "ship's mind" at the centre of Royal Navy warships. 

The Navy believes this would allow fast, complex decisions to made made automatically making warships and submarines 'safer and more effective in fast-moving, war-fighting situations'.

It also aims to use 'cutting edge. computing technology and unmanned aerial vehicles to help the Navy and Royal Marines to fight in information warfare.

Using open source intelligence and satellite imagery to 'enrich' the intelligence picture of a situation test the defences of ships and submarines against the risk of cyber attacks on the vessels' combat systems, communications systems, power and propulsion control systems.