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© Flickr/ José Luis Celada Euba
A joint mission of the United States and Germany, from 13 to 18 March, will perform an observation flight over Russia under the open skies Treaty, a Russian team of inspectors — at the same time over the territories of Benelux and Germany was announced by the head of the Russian national Centre for reducing nuclear danger Sergey Ryzhkov.
“In the framework of the implementation of the international Treaty on open skies during the period from 13 to 18 March a joint mission of the United States and Germany will perform an observation flight over the territory of the Russian Federation on the American aircraft observations OS-135Б from the airport Khabarovsk (New)”, — he said.
The observation aircraft OC-135Б belongs to the class of aircraft, not intended to use any weapons. The plane and installed on the observation equipment have passed the international certification, which was attended by Russian experts, which excludes the use of technical means, not covered by the contract.
Ryzhkov noted that during the flight on an agreed route Russian specialists on Board will monitor strict compliance with the agreed flight parameters and application of the contractual instrument.
“In the framework of the implementation of the international Treaty on open skies a Russian team of inspectors plans to carry out consecutive observation flights on a Russian plane Antonov-30B over the territories of Benelux and Germany. Observation flights will be carried out in the period from 13 to 18 March 2017 from the airfield the open sky Zaventem/Melsbroek (Belgium) and Wunstorf (Germany) with a maximum range of 645 and 1300 kilometers respectively,” — said Ryzhkov.
He added that the flight will be performed on the agreed route, and specialists in the Benelux and Germany on Board will supervise compliance with the provisions of the Treaty and the procedure for use of surveillance equipment. According to him, the observation flight contributes to greater openness and transparency in the military activities of States parties to the Treaty.
Ryzhkov also noted that the fourth and fifth observation flights Russia over the territories of the States parties to the Treaty in 2017.
The Treaty on open skies was signed in 1992 and became one of the measures for strengthening confidence in Europe after the Cold war. It has been operating since 2002 and allows the participating countries to openly gather information about military forces and activities of each other. The contract includes the majority of NATO countries, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and neutral Sweden and Finland. Usually flights Russia and NATO countries are carried out on a reciprocal basis.