A plane carrying the British Secretary of Defense Grant Shapps jammed its satellite signal as it flew near Russian territory, the government said Thursday.
The government said the Royal Air Force aircraft carrying Shapps, officials and journalists “temporarily experienced GPS jamming when flying close to Kaliningrad” on a flight from Poland to the UK
The Times of London, whose reporter was on the plane, reported that for about 30 minutes mobile phones could not connect to the internet and the plane had to use alternative methods to determine its position.
Shapps visited Poland on Wednesday to watch British troops take part in a major NATO exercise, Solid defender.
Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave bordering Poland and Lithuania, home to the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman, Dave Pares, said “the jamming did not threaten the safety of the aircraft at any point”. He said it was not unusual for aircraft to encounter electronic interference near Kaliningrad.
Western officials say Russia has significant electronic warfare capabilities based in Kaliningrad.
From Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has engaged in GPS jamming in areas from Finland to the Black Sea. As a result, a regional Finnish carrier had to cancel flights on one route for a week.
Read the original at Defence247.gr
