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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 0068.PDF
OPERATIONS: DEFENCE East-West set for Open Skies The Open Skies policy pro posed last year by President Bush will move a step nearer when, on 12 February, the Warsaw Pact and NATO meet in Ottawa to agree the operational aspects of the policy. Open Skies was first proposed by President Eisenhower at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, but it was turned down by the USSR. On 12 May last year, Bush expanded and resurrected the idea, provoking a positive re sponse. On 6 January, a Ca nadian Armed Forces Lockheed C-130 Hercules carried out the first trial overflight of Hungary; a Hungarian trial overflight of Canada is planned. The initiative calls for participating countries to permit the overflight of their territory in order to strengthen confidence and transparency with respect to their military activities and as a broad-brush arms-verification process. The Ottawa congress will first establish national commitments to the overall con cept and flight quotas, and will establish a framework of opera tional procedures to ensure both transparency and flight safety. Participation in Open Skies is open initially to all NATO and Warsaw Pact nations and in cludes all of their territories in Europe, North America and Asia. Overflight quotas will be based on the size of the country to be overflown and flight duration will also relate to size. For larger countries the quota should permit several overflights a month. Every country will have to accept one overflight a quarter. All parties will be entitled to participate in the flights, either individually or in co-operation with allies. Members will not be allowed to overfly their allies as part of the quota system. Smaller nations subject to the minimum quota can group themselves into one unit to host overflights and accept jointly the quota applying to the revised landmass. Aircraft used for the over- This RC-135C ^s would be banned from overflights, f ;...fe..-j nil.Min(,te but the RAF's . -|«j|jjj£Sj (wo bfr remaining l^ay Nimrod AEW.3. *JB^0^!!***' could be converted J 14643 w~-~~ NEWS IN BRIEF BLACK HAWK CRASH A US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in the Mojave desert on 10 Janu ary during an exercise. All four people on board were killed. INDIAN CRASH An unknown type of Indian Air Force helicopter crashed after hitting a pylon in fog on 6 January. Two of the crew were killed and five were injured. VLSW PURCHASE The UK Ministry of Defence is considering the purchase of vertical-launch Seawolf anti aircraft missiles. The weapons would be delivered between August 1993 and March 1997. An invitation to tender is planned for October and a contract, valued at around £200 million, is expected to be awarded in September 1991. Crash renews low-flying debate A Royal Air Force Jaguar pilot managed to land his aircraft safely after a random mid-air collision with an RAF Tornado removed about 1.5m2 (17ft2) of the port wing. The Tornado crashed in open coun try 5km (3nm) east of Hexham in England on 9 January. The Jaguar was one of a three- aircraft formation from 54(F)Sqn at RAF Coltishall; the Tornado was from 26 Sqn based in West Germany at RAF Laarbruch. The Tornado crew ejected safely but suffered injuries on landing. The collision, at 14.50, re moved some lm (3ft) of the Jaguar's port wingtip, but al though the Jaguar roll control is via outboard differential spoilers at low speed, the pilot, Wg Cdr David "Dim" Jones, managed to retain control and made a safe emergency landing at RAF Leeming, 83km (46nm) from the scene of the collision. The accident occurred in the southern part of Low Flying Area 12(T), which contains the exten sively used Otterburn air-to- ground weapons range and the Spadeadam electronic warfare range. The accident location is also in a low-level choke point formed by the eastern edge of LFA12 and the town of Hexham further narrowed by several noise sensitive areas. The House of Commons De fence Committee is conducting an extensive investigation of low-flying training in the UK. Military aircraft are allowed rou tinely to fly down to 250ft (75m) minimum separation distance or, with special clearance and train ing, to 100ft (30m) MSD. D flights must be unarmed, fixed- wing military or civilian types capable of carrying host-country observers. A "wide variety" of sensors will be allowed except for any that can be used for the collection and recording of sig nals intelligence. A list of prohib ited types and categories of sensors is to be agreed. Observation flights will begin from agreed predesignated points of entry and terminate at mutually planned exit points. Each state will designate its entry and exit gates. The host country will make available the type of equipment and servicing nor mally provided for foreign civil carriers', refuelling stops will be made available. Transit flights over third-party participant states will not be counted against the quota, providing the transit is within civil airways. Overflight crews will file a flightplan within six hours of arrival at the entry point. After arrival and filing from the host airfield, a 24h pre-flight period will begin. This is to allow time to determine that there are no flight-safety problems on the planned route and to service the aircraft. In this period, the air craft will be subject to inspection for prohibited sensors and recorders by the host nation. Host-country monitors will be allowed on all flights and will be given access to all parts of the aircraft and be allowed to mon itor sensor operations. The mon itors will also ensure that the aircraft flies the agreed flightplan. The aircraft will not be limited to commercial airways but will not be allowed to loiter over a single location. Observa tion aircraft will only be prohib ited from flying in airspace that is publicly announced as closed to other aircraft for valid flight- safety reasons that would be hazardous to the aircraft or crew (eg an active weapons range). Each country will publicly announce hazardous airspace and list where these public announcements can be found. Minimum altitudes of over flights may vary depending on safety constraints. The extent of ground control over the aircraft will be determined in advance by agreement of all parties. The presumption will be to allow the greatest openness commensurate with flight safety. • EI Tf-U-T TMTCDM A"rT/"»VT A
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