The Patriot Post® · Russia to Make Surveillance Flights Over U.S.

We live in a world where the rumble of Russian aircraft over the North Pole no longer signals that World War III is minutes away. Thanks to the Open Skies Treaty, Russia will begin to fly unarmed surveillance flights over the United States, perhaps as a way to assert a slow burn of a revived cold war. In the 90s, Russia and the U.S. signed the treaty, allowing both nations to monitor compliance of arms controls and other agreements by making flights over each other’s territory. Now, Russia has asked the commission overseeing the treaty to start flying missions over U.S. soil with new and improved digital cameras. If Russia gets its way, it will begin flights this summer. To be fair, the U.S. flew its own open sky flights in 2014. But combined with its posturing in Ukraine and Syria, Russia’s request for flights over the U.S. seems to be less a good-will action designed to keep everyone accountable and more about collecting information about an adversary. A few weeks ago, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command Adm. Cecil Haney wrote in a letter to Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), “The treaty has become a critical component of Russia’s intelligence collection capability directed at the United States. In addition to overflying military installations, Russian Open Skies flights can overfly and collect on Department of Defense and national security or national critical infrastructure. The vulnerability exposed by exploitation of this data and costs of mitigation are increasingly difficult to characterize.” Unfortunately, the world changed since the Soviet Union fell in the 90s, and it hasn’t been completely for the better.