Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an RAF aircraft carrying Grant Shapps back from Poland, according to government sources.
Defence sources said there was no danger to Shapps, who was travelling back to the UK, though they called it a “wildly irresponsible” act of electronic warfare.
It is understood that the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
Mobile phones could no longer connect to the internet and the aircraft was forced to use alternative methods to determine its location, the source said.
GPS-jamming equipment can be operated by aircraft, including drones, but is usually carried out using ground vehicles.
Aircraft taking off from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus are regularly jammed by Russian equipment, thought to be in Syria, though it is believed to be rare for an aircraft carrying a high-profile figure to be affected.
Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson confirmed that the incident had happened but added it was “not unusual” for aircrafts to experience GPS jamming over the city.
The spokesperson said: “While travelling back from Poland yesterday, the plane carrying the defence secretary and his delegation temporarily experienced GPS jamming when they flew close to Kaliningrad,” the spokesperson said.
“It didn’t threaten the safety of the aircraft and it is not unusual for aircraft to experience GPS jamming near Kaliningrad, which is of course Russian territory.”
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.
During his one-day visit to Poland, Shapps said Britain should spend 3% of its GDP on defence to protect itself, adding that a recent visit to Ukraine had been 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.”
