Little scare for the British Minister of Defense. The plane carrying Grant Shapps suffered GPS signal jamming this Wednesday March 13 when it passed near the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
While returning from Poland on Wednesday, where he attended training as part of a large NATO exercise, “the plane carrying the Minister of Defense and his delegation experienced temporary GPS jamming passing near Kaliningrad,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson reported on Thursday. The security of the device was not compromised, this source said. It is not “unusual” for planes to experience GPS jamming near the Russian enclave, the spokesperson added.
Half an hour of jamming
According to the British daily The Times, whose journalists were on board the aircraft, the phenomenon lasted half an hour. Phones could no longer connect to the Internet, and the plane had to use alternative methods to determine its location.
“It is rare for a plane carrying an important personality to be affected” by this type of interference, continues the conservative newspaper. However, a source within the Ministry of Defense confides to Times that “the RAF [l’aviation militaire britannique] is well prepared to face this type of episode.
The United Kingdom has been one of Ukraine’s most important supporters since Russia’s invasion two years ago. The Steadfast exercise is the largest NATO exercise to be conducted by the Alliance since the end of the Cold War. Some 90,000 soldiers are mobilized for several weeks, as well as dozens of ships, armored vehicles and combat planes. It must in particular verify the Alliance’s ability to quickly mobilize and transport American troops to “strengthen the defense of Europe”, according to NATO, which the Kremlin described as a “threat” shortly after the launch of the exercise.