Russian's fly Elmendorf's Open Skies

  • Published
  • By Airman Jack Sanders
  • 3rd Wing Public Affairs
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  Russian military members visited Elmendorf for a series of observational fly overs Oct. 20.

The group was part of the Open Skies Treaty.

The treaty was signed by 34 countries, and designed to enhance openness and cooperation between all those countries.

Open Skies is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants, regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of concern to them.

Since its original activation in early 1992, there have been more than 500 treaty flights.
Despite all those flights, it's been a while since Russia has visited Elmendorf. The last Russian visit for the treaty was in 2007.

"Each country has a quota system," said Major Shawn Walker, Defense Threat Reduction Agency open skies division deputy team chief mission commander. "By the treaty, each country is liable to be flown over a certain number of times."

In the past Russia has flown over the U.S. four times a year. The maximum amount of observation flights the U.S. can take and receive is 42 annually. This year the U.S. has conducted 15 treaty observation missions.

As part of the treaty all information collected on flights is open for all treaty members.
But even though everyone can benefit from treaty information the treaty's most beneficial party are the crews that get the experience of seeing new countries said Walker.

"Today we flew over Mount McKinley," said Walker smiling. "It's a great trip for the team, a lot of them are fairly new so, for a lot of them this is their first time seeing the states. It's a great adventure."

Open Skies' flights are rewarding not just because team members get to see new sights, but because they get to meet and work with new people as well.

Not all flights are single countries. The majority of the flights are multinational flights.

"We interact with a lot of the other teams," said Walker.

The information gained from Open Skies has a wide range of use. "We have used Open Skies imagery to facilitate the conduction of other treaty inspections," said Walker.

Open Skies has given many countries a good look into how other countries run, Walker said.

"It's a great diplomatic tool," said Walker.