It is believed that the RAF aircraft carrying the Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was attacked using electronic warfare systems to jam the GPS signal.
Russia jammed satellite signal on the RAF aircraft was flying to Poland close to the Russian enclave Kaliningrad.
Shapps flew on a Dassault 900LX, to visit troops in Mazury at a military base close to the Belarus border on Wednesday.
The GPS signal and internet connections and mobile phones were jammed 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.
Read more related news:
Russia is being hit with ‘the biggest attack’ since ‘Second World War’ by anti-Kremlin forces
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 widely irresponsible on Russia’s part.”
The source added, it is understood the jamming was “directly related to Putin’s attack on Ukraine and the sensitivities around Kaliningrad.”
Speaking in Poland, Shapps called for UK military spending to increase to 3% of GDP, saying, “I want a bigger budget.”
The Defence Secretary added, “I have coined the phrase ‘moving from post-war to pre-war’. We have to be much better prepared.
“Defence is the best way to protect ourselves against a military conflict – you have to show your adversaries – so I am clearly in favour [of a 3% target]. We live in a more dangerous world, we’ve got Putin on the frontline making gains.”
Poland’s President has repeatedly urged their allies to boost NATO defence spending which comes as Warsaw is on a war footing and are spending 3.9% of their GDP.
The Polish President Andrzej Duda, said, “Poland is proud to have been a part of it for 25 years. There has been and there is no better guarantor of security than the North Atlantic Alliance.”
“In my opinion, these three capitals have the task and the power to mobilise all of Europe” to provide Ukraine with fresh aid, Tusk said.
He wrote in the Washington Post, “The Russian Federation has switched its economy to war mode. It is allocating close to 30% of its annual budget to arm itself”.
“This figure and other data coming out of Russia are alarming. Vladimir Putin’s regime poses the biggest threat to global peace since the end of the Cold War.”
