The United States and Germany will perform an observation flight across the open sky of Russia
A group of military inspectors of the United States and Germany, within the framework of an international treaty on open skies, will perform an observation flight over Russian territory on an OC-135B aircraft in the period from 7 to 12 in November, reported today "Weapons Russia "in the Office of the press service and information of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.The flight will take place on the American observation plane OC-135B produced by the Boeing company along the previously agreed route and in strict accordance with the agreements reached on the use of technical means of observation. The reconnaissance aircraft OC-135B Open Skies is designed to operate under the Open Skies Agreement. The aircraft does not carry any weapons and conduct observation flights over the territory of the States parties to this treaty. OC-135B Open Skies is equipped with four cameras in the tail of the aircraft.
The installed cameras include one planned camera, two perspective KS-87 personnel cameras for taking pictures at a height of 914 meters and one mobile camera KA-91 for taking pictures from a height of 10670 meters. Aircraft crew - 38 man. The aerophotographic equipment installed on it has passed the necessary international certification, in the procedure of which Russian specialists took part. According to the Ministry of Defense, in the same period, from 7 to 12 in November, representatives of Russia on the Tu-154 ЛК 1 will make an observation flight over the territories of Spain and Portugal.
The Open Skies Treaty was first proposed by American President Dwight Eisenhower to Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev at the 1955 Geneva Conference, but at the time the treaty was rejected by the USSR. The idea of the contract returned in May 1989. The essence of the treaty is that in order to develop trust between the powers, the planes of the participating countries can make observation flights over the territory of other participating states. The Open Skies Treaty was signed by 27 by OSCE participating States 24 March 1992 in Helsinki. Russia ratified the 26.05.2001 agreement. Now the number of countries that have joined this treaty has increased to 34.
The main objective of the “open skies” regime is to develop openness and transparency, to assist in monitoring the implementation of existing or future arms control agreements and to enhance crisis prevention and crisis management capabilities in the framework of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and other relevant international organizations. In the future, the possibility of extending the open sky regime to new areas is envisaged, in particular, environmental protection.
Information