De Russen van Sputnik leggen bij de Amerikanen van Globalsecurity uit wat er aan hand is, en waarom er nu nog maar één van drie OC-135Bs vliegt. Ook zo’n verbouwde Boeing 707. Het meest veelzijdige vliegtuig ooit.
US Down to Just One Open Skies Surveillance Plane as Trump Weighs Treaty Exit
The US is down to just one of the specially certified OC-135B Open Skies surveillance planes used to participate in the mutual observation treaty. While the Pentagon is willing to upgrade the existing planes, it refuses to order replacements until the Trump administration decides it’s not leaving the 1992 treaty, which remains up in the air.
A Pentagon spokesperson told The Drive on Tuesday that one of the two remaining operational OC-135Bs used by the US for the Open Skies Treaty has received camera upgrades, meaning it cannot be used for observation flights at the moment.
https://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2020/intell-200429-sputnik01.htm
OC-135B (foto: USAF – wiki)
Open Skies Treaty >
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Open_Skies
Meer Boeing OC-135B >
Mission
The United States of America Open Skies OC-135B Observation Aircraft supports the Open Skies Treaty. The aircraft flies unarmed observation flights over participating parties of the treaty.
Features
The aircraft is a modified WC-135B. Since its primary mission is to take pictures, most of the installed equipment and systems provide direct support to the cameras and the camera operator. Work on the aircraft also included installing an auxiliary power unit, crew luggage compartment, sensor operator console, flight following console and upgraded avionics.
The interior seats 35 people, including the cockpit crew, aircraft maintenance crew, foreign country representatives and crew members from the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Cameras installed include one vertical and two oblique KS-87E framing cameras used for low-altitude photography (approximately 3,000 feet above the ground), and one KA-91C panoramic camera, which scans from side to side to provide a wide sweep for each picture (used for high altitude photography at approximately 35,000 feet).
The integrated data annotation and recording system, or IDARMS, processes navigational, altitude, time and camera signals to annotate each picture with correct position, altitude, time, roll angle and other information. In addition, this system records every picture taken according to camera, frame and navigational position and downloads this data to a thumbdrive. A keyboard with trackball is the input device for operation of this system. Two Barco 12-inch VGA color monitors display camera annotation and other camera data on screen for the sensor operator and observer use.
https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104496/oc-135b-open-skies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_OC-135B_Open_Skies
De Russische treaty checker >
Tu-214ON
The Tu-214ON is an observation version of the Tu-204-200, equipped for Treaty on Open Skies missions and built by Kazan Aircraft Production Association. Vega Radio Engineering Corporation was contracted for the development of airborne surveillance system, ground-based complex and other mission equipment for the aircraft. It is equipped with one A-84ON panoramic camera, one AK-111 topographic camera and two perspective AK-112 digital aerial cameras to capture high-resolution aerial photography.[21] Two video cameras, a Raduga infrared thermographic camera and Ronsard Side looking airborne radar are also fitted.[22]
The first Tu-214ON (RA-64519) was demonstrated at the MAKS-2011 international air show in Moscow. It performed its first test flight on 1 June 2011, which was followed by a series of 24 flights by December 2011. The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation conducted state tests to verify the air and ground equipment of the Tu-214ON aircraft in April 2013. The jet was delivered to the Russian Defence Ministry on 22 August 2013. The second airliner (RA-64525) made its first flight on 18 December 2013 and was delivered on 4 July 2014.[23] The Tu-214ON is set to replace the Tupolev Tu-154 and Antonov An-30 aircraft in the role.[24]
