03/25/2024 / By Ethan Huff
fAn MQ-9 Reaper drone owned by the United States made an emergency landing this week in Poland.
Though no further details have been released, Poland’s General Command of the Armed Forces tweeted that the piloted craft had to land suddenly after disconnecting from its command station.
According to the Pentagon, the craft was “conducting routine training operations when it lost connection with the command station, affecting their ability to operate the aircraft.”
“Preparations for recovery are currently underway and investigation of the incident is in progress,” said the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in a statement to Newsweek. “We are thankful to our Polish partners for their assistance.”
The lost connection is believed by the West to be a result of Russian GPS-jamming technology that is said to be interfering with the Global Positioning System and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals throughout eastern Europe and in the greater Baltic region.
“When an aircraft’s GPS or GNSS is jammed, it can become confused as to where it’s at,” reported Knewz.
“Many have pointed to the Russians as possible suspects for the alleged jamming. The area affected is between Russia and NATO members Poland and Lithuania around Kaliningrad.”
(Related: Putin just put the West on notice, warning that the “vampire ball is over.”)
Kaliningrad serves as a strategic base for Russia’s naval fleets. And Estonian Gen. Martin Herem, who heads up Estonia’s Defense Forces, recently warned that Russia’s ability to deploy electronic warfare against NATO from this particular spot is “quite strong.”
The drone incident in Poland marks the second time this past week that Russia was blamed for jamming GPS on a NATO aircraft. The first reportedly occurred when a Russian satellite signal is said to have interfered with an aircraft used by Britain Defense Minister Grant Shapps while he was traveling back home from Poland on March 13.
“The aircraft’s GPS signal was jammed for approximately 30 minutes as the plane flew near Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad,” reports explain.
Citing anonymous government sources and a handful of journalists, Reuters reported that mobile phones on the aircraft suddenly lost their internet connection, resulting in alternative means being used to determine the craft’s location.
“While travelling back from Poland yesterday, the plane carrying the Defense Secretary and his delegation temporarily experienced GPS jamming when they flew close to Kaliningrad,” said a spokesperson for United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
“It didn’t threaten the safety of the aircraft and it is not unusual for aircraft to experience GPS jamming near Kaliningrad, which is of course Russian territory,” the spokesperson added, claiming that this type of incident is “not unusual.”
Back in early March, Knewz reported that Russia has been conducting these types of GPS jamming tests against NATO aircraft for two years. In early February, the same media outlet said Russia started testing out a satellite dish system called Tobol that has been jamming satellite position signals since April 2023.
Several NATO countries say for sure the Kremlin is behind these GPS jamming incidents, which a Polish defense official added is meant to send a psychological message to the West.
“Building an atmosphere of threat and a sense of helplessness in society is undoubtedly one of the goals that Russia is pursuing,” the official is quoted as saying.
As of March 6, there was reported to be a “high level” of GPS interference occurring between St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Estonian border. At least 10 percent of signals in the southeast of Finland are also seeing interference.
Strangely, very little interference is occurring in Ukraine.
The latest news about the West’s war against Russia can be found at WWIII.news.
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chaos, drone, emergency, Glitch, GPS, information technology, military tech, MQ-9 Reaper, NATO, Poland, Russia, War, weapons tech, WWIII
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