Russian "Observation Flight" over WSMR (New Mexico) took place this afternoon... [View all]

[MedusaX]

I found this both interesting and worthy of concern...
especially when considering that WSMR (White Sands Missile Range) is one of only 2 places in the US that has control over their own airspace.

As far as I know, the flight is authorized by the 2002 Open Skies treaty, which allows the U.S., Russia and 32 other countries to conduct unarmed observation flights.
The primary reason for the flights
Is to verify compliance with arms control agreements.

That seems reasonable under normal circumstances...
but these flights apparently take priority over other airspace activities, which is not a problem in most places because the only airspace activities are commercial, private, & military air traffic....

However, WSMR has exclusive control over their airspace because it is used for missions (of all security classification levels) involving experimentation, test, research, assessment, development, and training for Army, Navy, Air Force, DoD, and other domestic and allied customers.
Which means pretty much all activities must stop for a large window of time to accommodate the observation fly over..... which is exactly what took place while I was there today.

Seems to me that this "observation flight" authorization could easily be used/abused not only in order to
disrupt the testing activities at WSMR...
But to
have a legitimate excuse to be in US airspace in order to use that access for nefarious purposes or to conduct shady business .....

According to an article on another Russian observation flight in April
https://www.google.com/amp/www.13wmaz.com/amp//news/local/russian-observation-jet-makes-stop-at-robins-afb/431354128

There were also US & Canadian personnel on board the April flight to act as chaparones....
but that was a 2 day flight that actually stopped at Robbins AFB....
And it was not clear as to why Canada was also on board....
Or if all observation flights are 2 day flights that stop over at designated bases...

But, of course, the rules stated in treaties no longer have value, meaning nor enforcement expectations so *45 could decide to allow these "observation flights" to be conducted personally by Vlad in any plane of his choice... provided *45
1. gets to ride along
2. Gets to wear the pilot's hat
3. Gets his very own Russian pilots' wings pinned on his shirt....