Downed Russian fighter jets have been found with basic GPS 'receivers to the dashboards, UK defense minister told

In April, a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 aircraft crashed in Chernihiv, Ukraine. Image Credit: REUTERS/Serhii Nuzhnenko

Wrecked Russian fighter planes are found with GPS receivers "taped to the dashboards" because their internal navigation systems are so poor, according to the UK defense minister.

During a speech at the National Army Museum in London on Monday, Ben Wallace paid respect to those who died in World War II and called Russia's invasion of Ukraine "senseless and self-defeating."

He also claimed there was proof that the invasion of Ukraine was putting Russian military hardware to the test.

"Due to the low quality of their own systems, 'GPS' receivers have been found taped to the dashboards of downed Russian Su-34s so the pilots knew where they were," he claimed.

"As a result, while Russia has a lot of artillery and armor to show off, they can't use it for combined arms maneuvers and have to rely on indiscriminate mass barrages."

The Su-34 is a Russian fighter jet that was initially produced during the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Ukraine has provided lots of evidence of what it believes are Russian efforts to fix flaws with outdated military equipment and avert shortages.

Ukrainian forces showed a Russian drone wrapped in duct tape and fitted with a generic plastic bottle top as a fuel cap last month. Ukrainian troops discovered Russian army bandages dumped on a battlefield in late March.

Wallace also claimed that Russian vehicles "often find with 1980s paper maps of Ukraine in them" and that soldiers are employing "pine logs as makeshift protection on logistics trucks" and putting "overhead 'cope cages' to their tanks" in his Monday speech.

Russia held its annual "Victory Day" military parade in Moscow on Monday, but the air force fly-by was canceled due to inclement weather, according to the Russian government.

During his speech, President Vladimir Putin did not proclaim an all-out war on Ukraine, as Western leaders including Wallace had expected instead of applauding the bravery of the Russian military fighting in the eastern Donbas region and denounced NATO and the US.

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