First Minister John Swinney has called for the UK to ditch its nuclear weapons, and instead invest in "conventional" maritime defence forces to protect North Sea energy infrastructure.
Last week, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) made the case for classifying energy assets as "critical national infrastructure" to bring them under the defensive remit of the military.
The push follows a reported increase in Russian drones and and suspicious activity in and around Scottish waters and in close proximity to offshore installations.
Now, SNP MSP Dawn Black asked the First Minister to join her in backing the OEUK call for the navy and air force to protect North Sea assets.
She said: "The Westminster UK Government has failed for years to properly invest in adequate defence provision in our North Sea leaving our energy infrastructure vulnerable.
"Does the First Minister agree that it's urgent that additional defence investment is directed towards the North Sea as a priority, and will he join me in calling on the Westminster government to do so?"
Mr Swinney replied: "There's obviously been a great deal of debate around this issue in the course of the last few days subsequent to the resignation of the Secretary of State for Defence.
"The point that Dawn Black puts to me is an important one because we have huge coastline and maritime interests around the coastline of Scotland, but to my view, that is not adequately protected because of the disproportionate investment that is made by the UK Government in weapons of mass destruction that the UK cannot now adequately support as well as maintain our defence footprint to protect the vital interests and infrastructure that Dawn Black refers to.
"I think the shift in UK priorities to protect our coastline and to make sure that to the north of Scotland we have actually got some sort of capability to stand up to the threats that we face from Russia under the Putin regime, it requires us to reshape our defence priorities and a greater investment in maritime conventional defence forces and the removal of our commitment to nuclear weapons would, for me, be a far more sensible defence strategy for this country."