Trump exiting Open Skies treaty
According to anonymous sources, Trump has decided to pull the U.S. out of the Open Skies Treaty, negotiated in 2002 to allow countries to overfly other nations freely.
President Trump will be pulling the United States out of the Open Skies Treaty, an agreement between more than 30 countries that allow for those involved to fly in each other’s air spaces, a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News. The New York Times first reported that Trump was planning to withdraw from the agreement, worrying NATO member nations who are concerned that once the U.S. is out, Russia will block their flights, which provide valuable surveillance of their own borders.
U.S. officials have warned that Russia had been violating the treaty already by not allowing flights over areas where military exercises were taking place or sites where Russia had nuclear weapons deployed. Each nation in the treaty agrees to make all its territory available for surveillance flights.
Note also that China is not a signatory.
Not surprisingly, their Democratic Party allies, always ready to aid other countries over U.S. interests, are already blasting this decision by the Trump administration.
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According to anonymous sources, Trump has decided to pull the U.S. out of the Open Skies Treaty, negotiated in 2002 to allow countries to overfly other nations freely.
President Trump will be pulling the United States out of the Open Skies Treaty, an agreement between more than 30 countries that allow for those involved to fly in each other’s air spaces, a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News. The New York Times first reported that Trump was planning to withdraw from the agreement, worrying NATO member nations who are concerned that once the U.S. is out, Russia will block their flights, which provide valuable surveillance of their own borders.
U.S. officials have warned that Russia had been violating the treaty already by not allowing flights over areas where military exercises were taking place or sites where Russia had nuclear weapons deployed. Each nation in the treaty agrees to make all its territory available for surveillance flights.
Note also that China is not a signatory.
Not surprisingly, their Democratic Party allies, always ready to aid other countries over U.S. interests, are already blasting this decision by the Trump administration.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I’ve always wondered if the Russians overflew places like Area 51. The treaty says at least a few days notice has to be given, so the UFOs would be in the hanger and everyone would be sick that day. They used to occasionally overfly my old base, and it wasn’t a big deal. It was said we didn’t return the favor as much because satellite reconnaissance is far superior.
The Expanse
“Preemptive Railgun attack on Mars”
https://youtu.be/9fgaMhcTxCY?t=130
Like leaving the INF intermediate range missile treaty, I think Trump’s longer term aim is to get a new set of treaties that include China (after Xi Jinping is hanged).
Donald J Trump ending his typical standing press conference at the helicopter “Remarks Upon Departure” to that Ford factory (a company that is now smaller in market capitalization than the hand made collection item maker Ferrari):
Journalist:
– (Are you going to be present at the rocket launch? [SpaceX crewed Dragon 27 May])
Trump:
– I’m thinking about going to the rocket launch, next week. I’d like to put ya’ all on the rocket to get rid of you for a while!”
With satellite technology today, the flyovers appear outdated.
@Charles, Being at 10 km altitude over a target of interest, at a speed of a couple of hundred meters per second, always will have advantages over being at 300 km altitude at eight million meters per second. Being 30 times closer to the target means a thousand times better resolution with the same equipment.
*) thousands turned millions above. That’s weird.
The sad thing is that these over flights are not just fly overs.
The participants have to call ahead and get permission for a specific path. They are allowed to fly anyplace.
The real problem is that members like Russia do not have the aircraft that can make the fly over without refueling. So we have been letting them land and refuel inside the US.
Plus the US doesn’t even need to do fly overs anymore. Just put a satellite on it.
In terms of whether Open Skies is still needed, let me point out that it was proposed by Eisenhower in 1955. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-presents-his-open-skies-plan
– the same year the U-2 first flew and so, before it was operational.
I would think that the people who know whether it is useful or not aren’t talking
LocalFluff–
you mean, “after Xi Jinping is….. vaporized.”
Minuteman III launch animation
https://youtu.be/S-V6MZlyCqE
2:22
@wayne
No, I mean when, any day now, Xi’s (isn’t that spelled “her’s” in English?) best friends hang him from a lamp post because he’s in their way of earning more monies by opening up and do good business. Like the Chinese in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore do. Xi is more afraid of the Chinese than anyone else is. Xi grabbed totalitarian power from his rival party friends, and promised Nirvana. When his promise isn’t kept, something bad will happen to him.
“- Here’s your ‘Belt” around your neck on this ‘enlightened Road’ of yours!”
Doesn’t his formal tenure end in 2022? I think it will. Even if he hasn’t formally nominated a successor, I think that others have. They who had enough of Mao I.