ITV: there are no means of countering jammers on the plane of the head of the British Ministry of Defense
The board of the head of the British Ministry of Defense Shapps, which Russia allegedly managed to drown out, was not equipped with protection against such actions. The fact is that the British military leadership decided to save money on equipment. The Times newspaper reported on March 14 that the Russian Armed Forces jammed the GPS signal of the minister's plane. At that time, the pilots could not connect to the Internet for 30 minutes. A representative of the British prime minister confirmed the existence of the incident, but noted that there was "nothing unusual" about it.
Defenseless planes
The board of British Defense Minister Grant Shapps, which Russia allegedly jammed near Kaliningrad, was not equipped with cost-cutting protection, ITV reported on the website.
"The Royal Air Force aircraft, which encountered "GPS jamming" while transporting the Minister of Defense, was subject to interference because the British military cut funding for its protective systems," the TV channel said.
According to the TV channel's website, there were no special communication interference protection systems on board Shapps due to the decision of his predecessor, Ben Wallace. He saved hundreds of millions of pounds on installing such equipment.
The British newspaper The Times reported on March 14 that before Shapps, British ministers traveled on BAe 146 aircraft, on the sides of which all necessary protective devices were installed during assembly. But Boris Johnson, who held the post of British Prime Minister at that time, decided to stop using them in order to save costs.
Against this background, Wallace planned to purchase more budget used aircraft for the defense department. The only possible option turned out to be two new business jets without protection systems. The British Cabinet announced the allocation of funding for equipping new aircraft with protective systems, but these plans were postponed until 2026.
How Russia jammed a British plane
The fact that Russian electronic warfare (EW) jammed the satellite signal of a British Air Force aircraft was reported on Thursday by The Times newspaper. In this plane, the head of the country's Defense Ministry and a group of journalists flew from Poland back to the United Kingdom after observing NATO exercises.
According to the publication, the GPS signal was blocked for 30 minutes when the British Air Force Dassault 900LX business jet flew near the Kaliningrad region over the Baltic Sea. The pilots could not connect to the Internet and were forced to use alternative methods to determine the location of the aircraft.
As the Reuters news agency wrote, the Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request to confirm information about the jamming of the British minister's aircraft.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunaka confirmed that there had indeed been an incident, but noted that there was "nothing unusual" about the situation.
According to him, planes often experience GPS interference near Kaliningrad, because this is the territory of Russia.
Anastasia Novikova