{"id":602360,"date":"2026-05-25T03:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/602360\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T03:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:16:08","slug":"gps-jammed-on-raf-jet-carrying-uk-defence-secretary-close-to-russian-border-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/602360\/","title":{"rendered":"GPS jammed on RAF jet carrying UK defence secretary close to Russian border | Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

An RAF jet carrying the defence secretary, John Healey<\/a>, had its signal jammed for the entire three-hour flight after it flew near the Russian border.<\/p>\n

Healey had been visiting British soldiers in Estonia<\/a> and was travelling back to the UK when the electronic attack happened, the Times reported.<\/p>\n

It is thought Russia<\/a> was behind the incident on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Smartphones and laptops were unable to connect to the internet and pilots had to use a different navigation system as the plane\u2019s GPS was disabled.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if Healey was deliberately targeted but the flight path was visible on aircraft tracking websites.<\/p>\n

Passengers, who included photographers and a reporter, were told the Dassault Falcon 900LX aircraft could still operate safely.<\/p>\n

Healey had met the Estonian minister of defence, Hanno Pevkur, in Tallinn to discuss long-term bilateral defence cooperation and its strategic expansion.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday the Ministry of Defence (MoD) revealed two Russian jets had \u201crepeatedly and dangerously\u201d intercepted an RAF spy plane<\/a> above the Black Sea last month.<\/p>\n

A Russian Su-35 jet flew so close to the British reconnaissance aircraft that it triggered its emergency systems, including disabling the autopilot.<\/p>\n

A Russian Su-27 also flew six metres from the unarmed Rivet Joint\u2019s nose and carried out six passes in front.<\/p>\n

The MoD said it was the most dangerous Russian action against a British Rivet Joint aircraft since a plane fired a missile over the Black Sea<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

A Rivet Joint is a spy plane, with a crew of up to 30, capable of a wide range of electronic surveillance at a ranges of about 150 miles, and would have been monitoring Russian activity as part of a Nato<\/a> patrol.<\/p>\n

In March 2024, an RAF plane carrying the then-defence secretary Grant Shapps had its GPS signal jammed<\/a> while flying near Russian territory.<\/p>\n

The satellite signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the flight was heading back to the UK from Poland.<\/p>\n

Last month, Healey revealed the UK had tracked three Russian submarines that loitered over critical undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic for a month before they sailed away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to pay tribute to the outstanding professionalism and bravery of the RAF crew who continued with their mission despite these dangerous actions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be very clear: this incident will not deter the UK\u2019s commitment to defend Nato, our allies and our interests from Russian aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An RAF jet carrying the defence secretary, John Healey, had its signal jammed for the entire three-hour flight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-602360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}