MOSCOW, October 27 (Itar-Tass) - The group of Russian air inspectors will make an observation flight over the territory of the United States under the international Treaty of Open Skies, head of the Russian centre for reduction of nuclear threat Sergei Ryzhkov told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
In his words, the Russian air inspectors will make an observation flight over the territory of the U.S. from October 27 through November 4 by an airplane Tu-154M Lk-1. The flight will be made from the airfield Travis, California, and its maximum distance will make 4,250 kilometres. The airplane will carry Russian and U.S. specialists to control the use of equipment and monitoring systems under the effective agreements.
In 2013 this will be the 37th observation flight, which Russian representatives will make over the territory of the member-countries of the treaty.
The Treaty of Open Skies was signed in 1992. Thirty-four countries joined the treaty. The observation flights are made over Russia, the U.S., Canada and European countries. The treaty pursues as the main goals the development of transparency, promotion of supervision over the fulfilment of the agreements in the control of weapons, broader capacities to avert crises and settle critical situations within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other international organizations.