A RUSSIAN Air Force Tupolev Tu-154MLk-1 has deployed to Travis AFB, California as a group of Russian air inspectors make observation flights over the United States under the international Open Skies Treaty.
The Russian Tu-154 with a team of US and Russian air inspectors on board will fly over the USA from October 27- November 4 to check out the use of equipment not included in the Open Skies Treaty. The old Russian airliner with sophisticated monitoring systems on board is allowed to fly a maximum distance of some 2,650 miles (4,250 kms)
This will be the 37th observation flight that Russian representatives will make over the territories of the member-countries of the treaty. Thirty-four countries signed up to the Open Skies Treaty in 1992 which allows observation flights over Russia, the U.S., Canada and European countries. The treaty’s main goals are the development of transparency, promotion of supervision over the fulfillment of the agreements in the control of weapons, broader capacities to avert crises and settle critical situations within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other international organizations. Alan Warnes