Treaty on Open Skies
The
Treaty on Open Skies entered into force on
January 1,
2002, and currently has 34 States Parties. It establishes a program of unarmed
aerial surveillance flights over the entire
territory of its participants. The
treaty 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. Open Skies is one of the most wide-ranging international efforts to date promoting openness and transparency of military forces and activities. The concept of "mutual aerial observation" was initially proposed by
President Eisenhower in
1955; the treaty eventually signed was an initiative of President (and former Director of Central Intelligence)
George H. W. Bush in
1989. Negotiated by the then-members of
NATO and the
Warsaw Pact, the agreement was signed in
Helsinki, Finland, on
March 24,
1992. The United States ratified it in
1993.
This treaty is not related to civil-aviation open skies agreements.
The 34 States Parties to the Open Skies Treaty are:
Belarus,
Belgium,
Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Bulgaria,
Canada,
Croatia,
Czech Republic,
Denmark,
Estonia,
Finland,
France,
Georgia,
Germany,
Greece,
Hungary,
Iceland,
Italy,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Luxembourg,
Netherlands,
Norway,
Poland,
Portugal,
Romania,
Russian Federation,
Slovak Republic,
Slovenia,
Spain,
Sweden,
Turkey,
United Kingdom,
Ukraine, and
United States.
Kyrgyzstan has signed but not yet ratified. The treaty
depositaries are
Canada and
Hungary.
The treaty is of unlimited duration and open to accession by other States. States of the
former Soviet Union that have not already become States Parties to the treaty may accede to it at any time. Applications from other interested States are subject to a
consensus decision by the
Open Skies Consultative Commission (OSCC), the
Vienna-based organization charged with facilitating implementation of the treaty, to which all States Parties belong. Eight states have acceded to the treaty since entry into force: Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Cyprus's application for accession is pending before the OSCC.
Territory
The Open Skies regime covers the territory over which the State Party exercises sovereignty, including land, islands, and internal and territorial waters. The treaty specifies that the entire territory of a State Party is open to observation. Observation flights may only be restricted for reasons of flight safety; not for reasons of national security.
Aircraft
Observation aircraft may be provided by either the observing Party or (the "taxi option") by the observed Party, at the latter's choice. All Open Skies aircraft and sensors must pass specific certification and pre-flight inspection procedures to ensure that they are compliant with treaty standards. The official certified U.S. Open Skies aircraft is the
OC-135B Open Skies (a military version of the
Boeing 707). The United Kingdom's aircraft is a modified
Hawker Siddeley Andover CMk 1, XS 641
Sensors
Open Skies aircraft may have video, optical panoramic and framing cameras for daylight photography, infra-red line scanners for a day/night capability, and synthetic aperture radar for a day/night all weather capability. Photographic image quality will permit recognition of major military equipment (e.g., permit a State Party to distinguish between a tank and a truck), thus allowing significant transparency of military forces and activities. Sensor categories may be added and capabilities improved by agreement among States Parties. All equipment used in Open Skies must be commercially available to all participants in the regime.
Quotas
Each State Party is obligated to receive observation flights per its passive quota allocation. Each State Party may conduct as many observation flights - its active quota - as its passive quota. During the first three years after EIF, each State will be obligated to accept no more than seventy-five percent of its passive quota. Since the overall annual passive quota for the United States is 42, this means that it will be obligated to accept no more than 31 observation flights a year during this three-year period. Only two flights were requested over the United States during 2005, by the Russian Federation and Republic of Belarus Group of States Parties (which functions as a single entity for quota allocation purposes). The United States is entitled to 8 of the 31 annual flights available over Russia/Belarus. Additionally, the United States is entitled to one flight over Ukraine, which is shared with Canada.
Data sharing and availability
Imagery collected from Open Skies missions is available to any State Party upon request for the cost of reproduction. As a result, the data available to each State Party is much greater than that which it can collect itself under the treaty quota system.
At a
Geneva Conference meeting with
Soviet Premier Bulganin in
1955, President Eisenhower proposed that the
United States and
Soviet Union conduct
surveillance overflights of each other's territory to reassure each country that the other was not preparing to attack. The fears and suspicions of the
Cold War led Soviet General Secretary
Nikita Khruschev to reject Eisenhower's proposal. Thirty-four years later, the Open Skies concept was reintroduced by President George H. W. Bush as a means to build confidence and security between all
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Warsaw Pact countries.
In September 1989, an international Open Skies conference involving all NATO and Warsaw Pact countries opened in
Ottawa, Canada. Subsequent rounds of negotiations over the next three years were held in
Budapest, Hungary,
Vienna, Austria, and Helsinki, Finland.
On
March 24,
1992, the Open Skies Treaty was signed in Helsinki by Secretary of State
James Baker and foreign ministers from 23 other countries. The treaty entered into force on
January 2 2002, after
Russia and
Belarus completed ratification procedures.
In
November 1992, President Bush assigned responsibility for overall training, management, leadership, coordination and support for U.S. Open Skies observation missions to the
On-Site Inspection Agency (OSIA), now a part of the
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Until entry into force in
January 2002, DTRA support for the treaty involved participating in training and joint trial flights (JTFs). The U.S. has conducted over 70 JTFs since 1993. By
March 2003, DTRA had successfully certified 16 camera configurations on the OC-135B aircraft. They also had contributed to the certification of the Bulgarian AN-30, Hungarian AN-26, POD Group (consisting of Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain) C-130H, Russian AN-30, and Ukrainian AN-30. The United States successfully flew its first Open Skies mission over Russia in December 2002.
With entry into force of the treaty, formal observation flights began in
August 2002. During the first treaty year, States Parties conducted 67 observation flights. In
2004, States Parties conducted 74 missions, and 110 missions are planned for
2005. The OSCC continues to address modalities for conducting observation missions and other implementation issues.
This article includes
public domain text from the following
United States Government sources:
Open Skies Treaty Fact Sheet published by the
United States Department of State Bureau of Arms Control on
June 13,
2005*
On-Site Inspection Operations: Treaty on Open Skies page at the United States
Defense Threat Reduction Agency*
Open Skies*
Text of the treaty at the Bureau of Arms Control website
*
Treaty Information (including
recent updates) from the
Open Skies Media Processing Facility at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base* "
U.S. Starts Air Inspections Over Russian, Belarus Military Objects" MosNews.com
June 15,
2005*
Open Skies For Peace audio clips and documents about President Eisenhower's open skies proposal.
*
Open Skies to Build Trust Article in the Cincinnati Post on 1/10/2006
