Last Wednesday the Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was travelling on a Dassault 900LX, RAF aircraft which was attacked by electronic warfare in a jamming attack.
Due to government limitations on spending the RAF aircraft was left without proper protections, it has been alleged.
Russia was able to jam the GPS signal and internet connections and mobile phones for around half an hour on the RAF plane however, the pilots have other means of being able to navigate.
The Defence Secretary and his team including some journalists were informed the attack never threatened the aircraft or any one on board, on Wednesday morning.
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The RAF aircraft was not fitted with the proper protections amid tight defence budgets that the former Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace put into place in 2022.
The new RAF aircraft were not fitted with jam proof communication, military standard avionics or even anti-missile jammers.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said, “As announced in 2022, the Envoy aircraft are being upgraded to full military and operational capability.
“It’s not unusual for aircraft to experience GPS jamming near Kaliningrad and at no time was the safety of the aircraft threatened.”
The Time reported that the RAF wanted their aircraft fitted with key protections this year, however this was pushed back to at least 2026.
Wallace told The Times, “The RAF is already overspent. I didn’t add the suite of extras because it would have meant taking millions away from military programmes to spend on a vanity project.
“The planes are never going to fly to hostile areas and if ministers need to then they switch to military lift.
“There are many more military platforms that need protection than a VIP jet. This is completely the wrong priority.”
Tim Ripley, editor of the news website Defence Eye, slammed Wallace, he told The Times, “These critical aircraft, which are used to fly members of the royal family, government ministers and service chiefs on high-profile missions, are effectively defenceless until protection systems are fitted.”
