A defense minister has revealed that the MoD is actively examining the potential threats posed by Chinese cars, and staff have been advised to refrain from talking about classified matters in any cars.
Safety Advice for Defence Staff
In a recently aired interview on a radio station, Luke Pollard commented on claims that Ministry of Defence officials have been instructed not to discuss secret information while travelling in China-made vehicles.
The minister stated that the MoD is “examining” Chinese vehicles within its fleets, but emphasised that security is a issue in every modern vehicles.
We have a collection of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and those vehicles represent a very small number.
But regardless of if you’re traveling in a vehicle from China or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our people is not to plug MoD devices into their vehicle, not to have discussions at a secret classification in any kind of vehicle, because of the growing threats of eavesdropping that exist in all vehicle, to only have those secret conversations in protected areas. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for everyone worried about safety.
After it was suggested that it would be prudent for the MoD to stop using every Chinese vehicles, Pollard responded: ‘That’s exactly what we’re investigating at the moment.”
Wider Defence Background
This announcement follows reports from Norway and Denmark have warned the United Kingdom to the existence of dual-use shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made electric buses, which could allow China to disable buses and bring disruption to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russian intelligence vessel was reportedly shining laser beams at RAF pilots, labeled a “highly dangerous” act by government representatives.
The wider defence situation underscores the significance of robust measures and caution in every areas of government operations, from transport use to communication habits.
