The GPS system on the British Defense Minister’s plane jammed near Kaliningrad

During the Trident Juncture 18 exercise organized by NATO in Norway, it was revealed that the Global Positioning System (GPS) did not work as expected, affecting not only military aircraft but also air traffic. Civil.

Later, in its annual report, the Norwegian Military Intelligence (Etterretningstjenesten) blamed Russian electronic warfare units present in the Kola Peninsula as being at the root of the malfunction. However, he refrained from clarifying whether the jamming was deliberate or whether Russian forces were conducting an exercise similar to Trident Junction 18.

Since then, other cases of GPS signal jamming have been reported, particularly since the installation of the new Russian electronic warfare system Tobol in Kaliningrad.

In early February, Estonia reported numerous interferences in its neighborhood, which are likely to pose additional threats to aviation and maritime transport.

“We don’t really know if they (the Russians) want to try something or just practice and test their equipment. (…) But certainly no one should behave like this, especially when you are at war with a neighboring country,” said General Martin Harem, commander of the Estonian Defense Forces.

In any case, on 13 March, a Royal Air Force Falcon 900LX, placed at the disposal of the British Defense Minister, Grant Shepps, for a tour of Poland, suffered a jamming of its system GPS while in flight. The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. First reported by the daily The Times, this information was confirmed by the services of the British Prime Minister.

A spokesman for 10 Downing Street said: “The plane carrying the Defense Minister experienced temporary GPS jamming while passing near Kaliningrad.” Before putting the scope of the incident into perspective, the safety of the Falcon 900LX “has not been compromised,” he assured. “It is not uncommon for aircraft to experience jamming of their GPS systems near Russian enclaves,” he said.

However, a source in the British Ministry of Defense expressed the opposite opinion in the pages of The Times. “There is no excuse for this and it is completely irresponsible of Russia,” she said.

However, even if the British minister’s flight could be followed using special sites (such as flight radar), it is not certain that he was specifically targeted. Indeed, Dr. of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). For Thomas Withington, it would be a question of the Russians activating a kind of “invisible shield” over Kaliningrad. “It might surprise some people, but I think obviously it’s really a protective measure,” he told the Telegraph last month.