How are the flights of "legal espionage" between the United States and Russia – 27/04/2019

A Russian spy plane fly over the United States. Take pictures of military installations, sometimes at low altitude, without being intercepted by the fighters of the US Air Force. In the age of the Web and satellites, it could be the scenario of a film of the seventies. But it's really happeningand at the sight of all. Even the government that Donald Trump leads.

It's happened this week as part of treated "open sky", connected 1992 by the United States and Russia, as well as 32 other countries in the northern hemisphere, with the aim of Mutual "legal spying". L & # 39; agreement heir to the cold war, look for each country to check by itself that there is no preparation for an attack on their territory. The flight could be followed live aeronautical monitoring sites, such as Flightradar24.com.

While the agreement has to taste another moment, the flights use advanced technologies: the novelty of this week was the first of the Tupolev TU-214ON, a version built exclusively for these missions based on the adaptation of a pbadenger model. The "ranking" for this clbad of flights was reason for auction between Moscow and Washington: ready for months to fly on the American sky, the license has just arrived in September 2018.

According to Russia, the main reason for this delay was the incorporation of OSDCAM4060 digital camera, which allows you to take pictures of 56592 x 1696 pixels. "The United States can not accept that Russia has created a modern inspection plane and equipped it with digital equipment made in Russia, which has outperformed the Americans in more than five or seven years" said the director of the Center for Reduction. of the nuclear threat, Sergey Rizhkov.

In its first appearance on American Sky, the Tupolev TU-214ON landed on April 22 at the base of the National Air Guard in St. Joseph, Missouri. Flights, facts Thursday to Saturdayincluded "observations" of some of the major US military installations, such as Fort Riley (headquarters of the 1st Marine Division); the air base dyed (Texas), where Rockwell B1-B strategic bombers operate; Fort Sill (Oklahoma), which owns the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system and the Los Alamos Laboratory (California), where nuclear weapons are developed.

The previous "visit" to the United States had reached a point Legend site: According to the Russian website Sputnik News, March 28, an observation of Tupolev Tu-154M LK-1 He flew over zone 51, in the Nevada desert, where much of the new US military technological developments are tested. This trip also included – depending on the medium used – the pbadage on a "secret aerodrome specialized in drone tests".

Look also

But the United States it was not left either. As part of a "special visit" contemplated in the treaty, on February 22, a US Air Force Boeing OC-135Becorrió the eastern region of Zabaikalie, in the eastern part of Russia and at the same time border with Mongolia and China. With the presence on board of Russian "supervisors", he devoted himself to "observe" the facilities of a missile base.