Plane carrying British defense minister subjected to GPS jamming — RT World News

The UK Ministry of Defense has publicly expressed concerns after an RAF plane carrying Defense Secretary Grant Shapps suffered GPS jamming while flying near the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. While London did not explicitly assign blame for the incident, British media reports claim that Moscow was behind the incident.

The ministry publicized the incident on Thursday, with a spokesperson revealing that electronic interference had occurred during Shapps' return to the UK from Poland on Wednesday.

“The plane carrying the Minister of Defense and his accompanying delegation experienced temporary GPS interference when it flew near Kaliningrad.” The speaker said.

He added: “This did not pose a threat to the safety of the aircraft, and it is not unusual for aircraft to experience GPS jamming near Kaliningrad, which is of course Russian territory.” The official added.

While the ministry did not explicitly pin any responsibility on Russia for the incident, government sources told British media that this was likely the case. However, no actual evidence has been provided to support these claims.

“Although the RAF is well prepared to deal with this, it still poses an unnecessary risk to civilian aircraft and could put people's lives at risk. There is no excuse for this, and it is highly irresponsible on the part of Russia.” ». An unnamed defense source told The Times.

Over the past few weeks, GPS connectivity issues have been repeatedly reported in the vicinity of Kaliningrad, including Poland as well as in the wider Baltic region, with the problem reaching areas of southern Sweden and north-eastern Germany.

While many media reports have attributed the interference to Russian electronic warfare jammers that were allegedly activated in Kaliningrad, the problems are also consistent with the US-led NATO bloc's ongoing military exercises in the region, said to be the largest exercise to be staged since the end of World War II. the second. Cold War era. None of the suspected parties that may have caused the GPS interference have provided any public comment on the matter.