Spanish defence minister's plane suffers GPS spoofing over Russia's Kaliningrad

The plane carrying Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles to Lithuania has experienced a GPS malfunction while flying over Russia’s Kaliningrad.

As reported by Spanish newspaper El Mundo, an A330 aircraft belonging to the Spanish Air and Space Force, carrying Robles to the Šiauliai air base in Lithuania on 24 September, is reported to have been "subjected to an attempt to throw it off course using GPS" while flying over Kaliningrad.

The aircraft’s commander reported that such incidents involving attempts to disorient pilots are quite common during both commercial and military flights over Kaliningrad.

In the case of the military aircraft carrying Robles, the attempt failed because the plane was receiving instructions from a military satellite.

Robles is scheduled to meet with Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė on 24 September.

Recently, 13 EU countries have called on the European Commission to take measures in response to disruptions of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) across the EU.

It was also reported that the plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had had to rely on paper maps during a flight to Bulgaria due to GPS failures believed to be caused by Russian interference.