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BRITISH and US spy planes flew laps of Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave hours after it was suspected of jamming Defence Secretary Grant Shapps’ “defenceless” plane.
The RC-135 Rivet Joint planes scrambled at dawn on Thursday and spent hours patrolling the skies close to the Russian territory.
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RAF pilots suspect Russia jammed signals on Shapps’ jet as he flew past Kaliningrad on Wednesday.
The minister was onboard a Dassault Falcon 900LX that flew within 45 miles of the Russian border on its way back from eastern Poland.
The Sun was onboard the plane at the time after visiting troops taking part in Exercise Steadfast Defender, the largest Nato war games since the end of the Cold War.
Shapps’ plane was left “defenceless” before the attack after British military couldn’t afford to pay for sufficient protective systems, The Times has revealed.
The government opted not to kit out the jet with anti-missile jammers, hacker-proof comms or military-grade tech to save as much as £200million.
Experts told The Times this had left the aircraft “vulnerable to surprise attack”.
Pilots reported the GPS stopped working and phones in the aircraft were unable to connect to its satellite internet.
Defence sources insisted the plane was never in danger but they slammed the Russian jamming as “wildly irresponsible”.
There is no excuse for this and it’s widely irresponsible on Russia’s part
Sun sourceA source told The Sun: “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.”
Defence sources also insisted the Rivet Joint flights were planned before the jamming incident.
The US and British spy planes took off an hour apart, from their respective bases at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
Both flew east over Germany and Poland before diverting around Kaliningrad’s airspace.
The RAF jet made three deliberate passes in front of Kaliningrad’s Baltic coast before following the US jet towards Estonia.
Both jets were packed with electronic surveillance censors for soaking up signals intelligence.
The RAF aircraft is crewed by spies from GCHQ, the government’s top secret listening post.
On its return from Estonia it made a further five passes along Kaliningrad’s southern border.
The US spy plane also made two smaller passes along Kaliningrad’s southern border on the return led of its journey.
Flight records show they came within 20 miles of the Russian exclave which is believed to host Putin’s doomsday nuclear missiles.
British Rivet Joints regularly patrol the Baltic and the Black Sea.
Earlier this month Russia said it scrambled an Su-30 fighter jet to intercept a Rivet Joint and two Typhoon fighter escorts as they flew over the Black Sea.
In September 2022 a Russian pilot fired two missiles at the same aircraft.
One missed and one misfired in an incident the US described as a “near shoot down” that could have triggered World War Three.
The RAF said the Rivet Joint’s sensors “soak up electronic emissions from communications, radar and other systems.”
Their website said it scans “the electromagnetic spectrum in order to derive intelligence for commanders”.
Wednesday’s attack on Shapps plane wasn’t the first time deranged tyrant Vladimir Putin had used electronic warfare to spark chaos across Europe.
In early February Russia jammed GPS tech in a similar fashion on flights and ships spanning the eastern flank of Nato, causing severe disruption.
It’s electronic warfare weapon, based in Kaliningrad, was being used against commercial airliners and sea vessels.
Reports surfaced of planes suddenly dropping off tracking sites – likely due to their GPS being disrupted.
Experts warned that this could cause severe damage to the shipping industry, as they could collide due to not being able to see each other on navigation systems.
Officials said they did not suspect Shapps’ plane had been singled out after the attack and the defence sec – a qualified pilot – was assured it did not affect the aircraft’s safety.
The attack came after Shapps spoke in Poland on Wednesday and warned that Britain should be spending billions more on defence to save itself from World War Three.
The defence chief said he was “clearly in favour” of raising defence spending to three per cent of GDP.
Current UK spending sits at 2.27 per cent, with the Government committed to 2.5 when conditions allow.
Mr Shapps and Jeremy Hunt both pledged to raise defence spending to three per cent in the 2022 Tory leadership race.
Amid continuing threats from Russia and China, Mr Shapps said: “It is a more dangerous world now.
“Defence is the best way to protect ourselves.
“You have to show your adversaries, so I am clearly in favour.”
He said the cost of beating Russia was “cheap at half the price”.
Shapps was flying on a Dassault Falcon 900 jet when the signals were jammed near Poland
US Air Force Rivet Joint jet – also sent from a UK base on Thursday morning
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