A government plane carrying the British defense minister from a NATO military exercise was jammed, rendering the aircraft’s GPS navigation system and mobile phone inoperable, and blame was directed at Russia.
British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps returned from observing part of Operation Steadfast Defender, the largest NATO military exercise in decades, as a Dassault 900LX Falcon fighter jet flew over Russian territory in northern Europe for about 30 minutes. It is claimed to have been experienced without satellite navigation. The apparent sabotage by Russian forces occurred near Kaliningrad, an isolated remnant of Russia’s old European empire sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.
The enclave is known for the GPS jamming that appears to have been emanating from the area for many years. Given that the aircraft was not flying in the dark and its transponder was on, it is unclear whether it was intentionally targeted or flew through typical Russian interference.
‘Russian’ GPS interference again affects Poland and Baltic states, Swedish military intelligence investigates https://t.co/eATnlmTl4w
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 18, 2024
a report in times Cellphones in London were unable to access mobile data and the aircraft’s GPS system did not function during the period of jamming. An anonymous defense official who spoke to the paper said that while military aircraft can deal with jamming, it still “poses unnecessary risks to civilian aircraft and could potentially endanger lives.” Stated. The spokesperson said Russia’s attacks on radio spectrum were “highly irresponsible.”
Mr Shapps was in Poland to observe NATO exercises, and while there he announced that the UK would extend the deployment of troops operating air defense missile systems in the country, which would bring Poland “out of danger”. “We are protected,” the minister said. Growing threats and aggressive forces. ” He also called for a significant increase in Britain’s defense spending, but ignored his responsibility to actually do so, saying it would be a post-election issue.
GPS jamIt uses publicly available data from commercial aircraft, which automatically report navigational problems to ground stations, to track areas of the world where satellite navigation is less reliable than expected, and is used across Poland to track areas of the world where satellite navigation is less reliable than expected. Indicates a “high level” of interference with the service. Wednesday Baltic Sea. The service also indicates that interference has increased recently and is now more widespread than levels considered unusually bad earlier this year.
As reported in Januart, commercial aircraft flying over Poland and the Baltic Sea were reporting significant GPS discrepancies. According to reports at the time,
Half of Poland and most of the Baltic Sea are said to suffer from interference with the US military-backed Global Positioning System (GPS). The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation aid system that was introduced to the public in the 1980s and is now installed in everything from mobile phones to mobile phones. From cars to giant oil tankers and passenger planes… According to Polish news magazine Wprost, this phenomenon has been experienced several times in recent months, but recently the interference has become more widespread. Other recent periods of interference have been described as “extensive” and the source of the problem has been Russian jamming equipment in the Kaliningrad Oblast (a small independent territory of Russia surrounded by European Union member states). It has been theorized.
Sweden has been vocal about the issue, calling the jamming a “hybrid warfare activity” by Russia. Maj. Gen. Thomas Nilsson, head of the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Agency, said the impact of the intervention was potentially severe, saying: “We can note that something like this happened, but this is serious. This is because large parts of civil society, including civil aviation and shipping, depend on GPS systems. ”
But the problem goes back even further than Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, with a 2018 report pointing to large-scale GPS jamming during large-scale NATO exercises, and this week’s jamming. The situation is the same as the one described above. Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila criticized Russia at the time, saying: “It is technically relatively easy to jam radio signals in a plaza, and it is certainly possible that Russia was involved in this jamming…Russia is known to have such capabilities. This was no joke and jeopardized the aviation safety of the public.”
Russia denied responsibility.
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 14, 2018
