Royal Air Force: Russia blocks GPS on RAF jet carrying Grant Shapps on flight to Poland following Nato war exercise

Russia has been accused of disrupting the satellite GPS on an RAF jet carrying the UK Defence Secretary as he flew to Poland on Wednesday (13 March). It is understood that the GPS signal was blocked for around 30 minutes as Grant Shapps’ RAF jet flew close to the edge of Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Lithuania and Poland.

The flight lost GPS navigation and internet access on the outbound and return journey. It is believed that the electronic interference is directly related to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Shapps was assured by pilots that the safety of the aircraft was never at risk. Defence sources said there was no danger to Shapps, though they called it a “wildly irresponsible” act of electronic warfare. The incident happened as he was visiting British troops in Poland as they took part in the biggest NATO exercise since the Cold War.

GPS-jamming equipment can be operated by aircraft, including drones, but is usually carried out using ground vehicles. According to the Times, a defence source said: “While the RAF are well prepared to deal with this, it still puts an unnecessary risk on civilian aircraft and could potentially endanger people’s lives. There is no excuse for this and it’s wildly irresponsible on Russia’s part.”

It was unclear whether Shapps himself would have been the target, it added, although the flight path was visible to aircraft tracking websites. Shapps' jet flew within 60 miles of Kaliningrad on its return journey from Poland - and hundreds of commercial flights using the same airspace have reported similar problems in recent months. The Daily Mail reports that the attacks are understood to be part of the Kremlin's cyberwarfare programme against the West.

Shapp's visit came just one week after he was in Kyiv, which he described as a "wake up call". He said of Putin: "All that needs to happen to resolve this is he needs to drive back east and get out of a democratic country that he decided to invade two years ago. And that is the way to bring this whole thing to a conclusion."