The Spanish Defense Ministry has detected an attempt to jam the GPS signal of a plane carrying Defense Minister Margarita Robles while it was flying over the russian enclave of Kaliningrad, Reuters reported on Wednesday, September 24.
The Spanish military plane was en route to Lithuania, where the Defense Minister was scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with her Lithuanian counterpart, Dovilė Šakalienė, during a visit to Šiauliai Air Base. The GPS jamming was detected early Wednesday as the plane flew near Kaliningrad, russia.
"There was an attempt to jam the GPS signal, but since our plane has an encrypted system, it didn't work. This should be common on this route, as well as with commercial flights. It's not because it's our plane," a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
The Spanish plane can navigate using military satellites if necessary. According to the publication, such incidents are common for civilian and military aircraft flying near Kaliningrad. In the past week alone, the Spanish contingent has intercepted eight russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the Spanish Ministry of Defense said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on September 23, US President Donald Trump said that NATO member states should shoot down aircraft of the aggressor country of russia that violate their airspace.
On September 23, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that NATO would not shoot down russian aircraft unless they attacked NATO members.
On September 22, Donald Tusk said that Poland would "without hesitation" shoot down air targets that violate its airspace and pose a threat, but would take a more cautious approach to situations that are "less unambiguous."
Who we are: About us, Contacts. How we write news and our principles: Editorial code. We did our best. If you found this valuable – please support us.
To request a correction, please send an email.