Though, Raw Story is "leftist" I believe, nobody else is carrying this, that we withdrew from the 'Open Skies Treaty', I've heard of it.
Trump pulls United States out of military treaty that allows surveillance of Russia: report
Published 2 hours ago on October 7, 2019 By Matthew Chapman
On Monday, the Trump administration announced the United States would be withdrawing from the Treaty on Open Skies, an agreement between 34 nations that allows unarmed military aircraft to fly over each other’s territory for observation purposes.
One of the key benefits to the treaty is that it allows the United States and its allies to fly over Russian airspace for the purpose of gathering intelligence — 42 overflights of Russian territory per year are permitted under the treaty, including 16 overflights by the United States specifically. These flyovers were important to monitoring Russia as they invaded and occupied the Crimean Peninsula.
But Trump has soured on the treaty in recent months, claiming that Russia is not in “complete compliance with [its] obligations.†In August 2018, the Trump administration moved to block funding for the treaty in the annual defense authorization bill, and two months later, Trump officials refused to certify a Russian airplane for Open Skies overflights, alone among the treaty’s signatories — but quickly changed course and approved the flight.
Read more at: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-pulls-united-states-out-of-military-treaty-that-allows-surveillance-of-russia-report/
Related:
Ukrainian Armed Forces An-30B Carries Out Open Skies Treaty Observation Flights Over Southern Italy
David Cenciotti
The Ukrainian Armed Forces An-30B involved in the Open Skies Treaty mission over Italy photographed while landing at Decimomannu AB. (Image credit: Alesssandro Caglieri).
The somewhat rare aircraft involved in observation flights earlier this week.
A Ukrainian Armed Forces An-30B carried out observation flights over several southern Italy locations under the “Open Skies†treaty.
As explained by Open Skies expert Steffan Watkins in a recent article here at The Aviationist:
The Treaty on Open Skies currently has 34 signatories, but was originally signed in 1992, and only came into force in 2002. Each country must conform to the terms outlined in the treaty, but there are additional procedures still left up to each country to implement how they see fit. Contacted for additional information about the flight, Canadian Department of National Defence officials declined to provide additional flight path information, and do not plan to issue a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), which would show where the Russian Federation will be flying and taking pictures. This is different from British and Italian officials who regularly publish a NOTAM when Russian flights are conducting overflights of the United Kingdom and Italy respectively, as a warning to other flights in their path. These published flight plans have the additional benefit of allowing plane-spotters and open source researchers to follow Russian yearly visits.
Read more at: https://theaviationist.com/2019/09/27/ukrainian-armed-forces-an-30b-carries-out-open-skies-treaty-observation-flights-over-southern-italy/
Awesome looking plane!
