Originally Posted by
Easy Street
Another point to note is that many military transit sorties across Europe are done on standing clearances.
Years ago I was flying down the Persian Gulf in an airliner and a U.S. military aircraft with a SAM callsign (89th Wing VIP flight out of Andrews AFB near Washington DC) was on the frequency. The controller (Bahrain?) gave the plane a direct that had him flying over Qatar. The SAM flight said they wanted to stay on the flight plan. The controller said that U.S. military flights request the shortcut all the time, it's not a problem. The SAM flight declined the reroute but thanked the controller.
I asked a colleague who flew right seat on Air Force One during the Clinton Administration why the SAM flight couldn't take the shortcut. He said that the SAM flights were considered 'state aircraft' even though they were military and required specific overflight clearance to go closer than 12 miles off the coast of another nation. Apparently a lot of effort is put into obtaining these clearances for each mission.