Open Skies - yet another Capability gap?
In the Press at the moment in both the UK and USA is hype associated with the 'Open Skies' treaty. i.e. shock, horror, Russian Antonov is based at BZN and permitted to overfly the UK taking photographs.
This prompted me to question how we do reciprocal flights these days having long since retired the last Andover. Rivet Joint or even King Air was my expectation.
What a surprise then to find we ride shotgun on a Swedish Air Force Saab as indeed so do the Germans. Now Open Skies is s much to do with politics as maintenance of a military status quoe. Our involvement with a non-NATO third party nation surely sends a message of nonchallence towards the treaty. Is this because satellite imagery is such that Open Skies in the traditional sense is outdated? ..or is the message that the UK is engaged in austerity to the point that Open Skies is not financially sustainable insofar as not representing value for money.
As Typhoon QRA is also almost daily news, one would have thought that the UK Open Skies responsibility would be a little more overt. The natural successor to Andover would have been a BAe 146 of 32 Sqn, and one wonders why such a machine was never introduced into service.