They would never dare launch such an attack on Air Force One

Inexcusable. Wildly irresponsible. Defence sources were unequivocal last night in their condemnation of Russia’s extraordinary act of war: scrambling the GPs signal on an RAF jet carrying Defence secretary Grant shapps back from Poland on nato’s eastern front.

For sound political and diplomatic reasons, Rishi sunak tried to play down this troubling incident, describing it as ‘not unusual’. but make no mistake: inside his no 10 bunker, there will be serious concern about what was, in fact, highly out of the ordinary – and there will be plans for retaliation, too.

That Russia deployed satellite-jamming technology against a british military plane carrying a cabinet minister is an alarming development and yet another deterioration in our relations with Vladimir Putin’s rogue state.

since the dictator launched his unprovoked invasion of ukraine over two years ago, GPs jamming has become a critical weapon of the war. Kyiv and Moscow work tirelessly to block each other’s satellite signals to prevent drones and aircraft from bombing their respective positions, and to make communication more difficult. Russians, thought to be working in syria, also regularly jam aircraft taking off from RAF akrotiri in cyprus.

so what exactly happened – and how? GPs (Global Positioning system) is the technology that underpins digital navigation: from the iPhone in your pocket giving you the best route on the motorway, to military aircraft seeking bombing targets and, yes, to passenger jets hurtling around the globe.

It allows terrestrial devices to communicate with satellites and establish their specific ‘geolocation’.

However, GPs’s weak signal – first developed in the 1980s – is fragile by contemporary standards, and strikingly easy to jam. Only a few years ago, interfering with GPs was considered taboo, but now the ruthless Russian regime shows no compunction in doing so.

Thankfully, shapps was travelling in a sophisticated Dassault 900lx Falcon, whose pilot had access to a backup system for navigation and communication. The risk to the minister’s safety was small – and some experts warned last night that he may not even have been deliberately targeted, but was instead an ‘accidental’ victim of Russian malfeasance.

Whatever the truth, the Kremlin’s behaviour undoubtedly stands as a fearsome show of force.

It is vital to look at where the incident took place. shapps was flying close to the Russian ‘exclave’ (separated from the main country, as alaska is from the continental united states) of Kaliningrad on the baltic sea. according to the lithuanian ministry of defence, Russia operates three GPs jamming outposts in Kaliningrad.

Historically, the baltic sea has been a vital highway for Russia, providing not just access to Kaliningrad but also as a base from which to enter the atlantic Ocean.

However, following Finland’s accession to nato last year and sweden’s earlier this month, Russia’s hold over the sea is threatened. The recent surge in GPs attacks in the region are likely to be reprisals, then, for this important geopolitical shift.

We must face one further uncomfortable truth. britain has become an easy target for Putin. He would not have tried this against air Force One – and his predecessors, had they had the capability, would not have attempted it against Margaret Thatcher, even at the height of the cold War.

Putin has watched as we’ve underfunded our defence for 30 years and – although we have more recently led the way in defending ukraine – repeatedly failed to respond to his provocations.

Well, not any more. We have no choice but to rebuild our defensive capabilities. spending must increase from 2.3 per cent of GDP to at least the 3 per cent shapps has demanded. If we do not stand up to Putin’s aggression, it will only embolden an increasingly erratic man.

‘Britain has become an easy target for Putin’