A Spanish military jet, carrying Defence Minister Margarita Robles and relatives of Spanish airmen, experienced a GPS disturbance early Wednesday near Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave en route to Lithuania, the Defence Ministry confirmed.
The airmen are part of a NATO air defence mission on its eastern flank, launched this month after Poland shot down drones violating its airspace.
The Spanish “Vilkas mission” (Lithuanian for wolf) last week intercepted eight Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the ministry added.
A Defence Ministry spokesperson said: “There has been an attempt to disrupt the GPS signal, but as our aircraft has an encrypted system, it was not affected.”
They added that such incidents are common: “It must be common on this route and also with commercial flights. It is not because it is our aircraft.”
Robles was due to hold a bilateral meeting with her Lithuanian counterpart Dovile Sakaliene during a visit to the Siauliai airbase on Wednesday, the Spanish government’s agenda showed.
The incident follows another in which the GPS system of a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was jammed while en route to Bulgaria on 31 August.
A European Union spokesperson said Bulgarian authorities suspected the incident was due to interference by Russia.
Estonia and neighbouring Finland have also blamed Russia for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region’s airspace. Russia has denied interfering with communication and satellite networks.
Finland’s military has said Russia uses GPS jamming in the region to protect Russia’s Baltic Sea oil ports, military sites and other strategic assets from Ukrainian drone attacks.
Most modern airliners have sensors and sources to determine their positioning, in addition to GPS, meaning they can fly if there is interference.
A commander onboard the Spanish plane told reporters travelling with Robles that such incidents are common when flying near Kaliningrad for civilian and military aircraft, and that the Spanish plane could also navigate using military satellites.
