{"id":43687,"date":"2019-10-08T21:53:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T21:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/08\/top-dems-warn-trump-against-us-pullout-of-open-skies-treaty\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:29:09","slug":"top-dems-warn-trump-against-us-pullout-of-open-skies-treaty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2019\/10\/08\/top-dems-warn-trump-against-us-pullout-of-open-skies-treaty\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Dems warn Trump against US pullout of Open Skies Treaty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2015 Top Democratic lawmakers strongly urged the Trump administration on Tuesday against expected action to withdraw America from a landmark treaty which allows the Russian military to be monitored from the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez \u2015 with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash.; House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I. \u2015 said scrapping the 1992 Open Skies Treaty \u201cwould be another gift\u201d to Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWithdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty would be perceived as casting further doubt on the status of the United States commitment to Ukraine\u2019s security and would advance the Russian narrative that the United States is an unreliable partner in the region,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Open Skies permits unarmed flights over the sovereign territory of 34 signatory nations to monitor military activity and conduct arms control measures. The U.S. uses two aging Boeing OC-135B aircraft, which are flown by the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron out of Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/09\/14\/us-russia-remain-at-impasse-over-nuclear-treaty-flights\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"187\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1764088.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US, Russia remain at \u2018impasse\u2019 over Open Skies treaty flights<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Tension between the U.S. and Russia over the Open Skies treaty have flared up once again.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though the U.S. has spy satellites, the overflights have allowed the U.S. and other signatories to share unclassified imagery with Ukraine and other countries near Russia who may not have satellite capability. Last year, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a letter to Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer that the overflights were particularly useful after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and that it was in America\u2019s \u201cbest interest\u201d to stay in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawmakers alleged the administration was moving forward without consulting allies or Congress and that, \u201cagencies have been directed not even to discuss this matter with Congress.\u201d The administration, they said, had made no case for withdrawing on national security grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat the administration may now be choosing to withdraw from the Treaty would signal a troubling reversal and a lack of coherent strategic thinking,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Increased discussions inside the Pentagon and State Department of late have fueled fears the National Security Council is planning a push to withdraw the U.S. from the Open Skies Treaty. \u201cThere are a lot of rumors floating around, but there are also fears in the Department of State and Department of Defense that this is on the path to happening,\u201d said one House Armed Services Committee aide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, Engel sent his own<a href=\"https:\/\/foreignaffairs.house.gov\/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&#038;File_id=46136E03-1D92-431B-AA31-7D20D2F266F9\" target=_blank> letter <\/a>to White House National Security Advisor Robert O\u2019Brien to urge against the Trump administration\u2019s \u201creported plans\u201d on Open Skies. A withdrawal would undercut NATO allies and Ukraine, which have lauded the treaty-sanctioned ability to monitor Russia\u2019s military as check on further Russian aggression in Ukraine, Engel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWithdrawal risks dividing the transatlantic alliance and would further undermine America\u2019s reliability as a stable and predictable partner when it comes to European security,\u201d Engel said. \u201cIf the Administration is indeed considering a change of status on the Treaty, it must be part of a transparent process that includes a thorough interagency review and consultation with Congress, and that provides other signatories a clear understanding of your intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The current controversy comes amid an impeachment investigation over Trump pushing Ukraine\u2019s president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and whether Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine as leverage, and avoided an interagency process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of Tuesday morning, the White House had not directed the Defense Department to curb Open Skies activities, said Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Carla Gleason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Open Skies Treaty enhances confidence and security by providing a mechanism for mutual understanding,\u201d Gleason said in a statement, noting that Russia had previously been found in violation of the terms of the treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe United States has imposed Treaty-compliant measures on Russian Open Skies flights over the United States in response to their violations,\u201d Gleason said. \u201cWe will continue to work with our partners to press Russia to correct these violations and return to compliance with the Treaty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Late last year, the U.S. flew an OC-135 over Ukrainian territory to reaffirm U.S. commitment to Ukraine and other allies \u2015 a signal to Russia after it attacked Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait. It was the first flight of the year after the U.S. and Russia appeared to resolve an impasse over what equipment may or may not be certified on Russia\u2019s overflight aircraft, the Tu-214.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In September, 2018, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan certified, as required by the 2019 defense authorization act, that the U.S. had imposed consequences for Russia\u2019s treaty violations as well as legal countermeasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Congress has passed action to support OC-135B recapitalization plans in recent years, but Republicans have been split over the treaty. While the House Armed Services Committee\u2019s ranking member, Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and the Senate Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces chairman, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., have vented frustration over Russian treaty violations, Fischer and other key lawmakers from Nebraska have fought off efforts to strip funding for its modernization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a retired Air Force brigadier general who formerly commanded the 55th Wing, defended planned upgrades to treaty aircraft and said the treaty itself \u201cpromotes understanding, trust and stability\u201d among its members, \u201cgrants the U.S. valuable access to Russian airspace and military airfields on short notice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI understand that the administration is considering if we should remain in the treaty,\u201d Bacon said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cI believe the US was justified in terminating our participation in the [Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty], but I\u2019ve yet to see a compelling reason to withdraw from Open Skies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cotton, on the other hand, has called on the U.S. withdraw for years, arguing it is out of date and favors Russia, in part because it restricts surveillance flights over Kaliningrad, home to a Russian military hub, and the breakaway Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Vladimir Putin has violated the Open Skies Treaty for years while continuing to benefit from surveillance flights over the United States,\u201d Cotton said in a tweet Tuesday. \u201cThe president should withdraw from the Open Skies treaty and redeploy the hundreds of millions of dollars the Pentagon wastes on the flights and equipment to increase U.S. combat power.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/05\/23\/white-house-wants-37-items-gone-from-the-ndaa\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1000w_q95.jpg_95c9b7.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The White House wants 37 items gone from the NDAA<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The House draft of the annual Pentagon policy bill is full of things the White House finds objectionable. Enough for a veto? Probably not.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The funding for the OC-135 recapitalization would be better shifted to other higher defense priorities than a treaty that lets Putin play the U.S. for \u201cchumps,\u201d said one congressional aide, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s the height of insanity to burn a quarter of a million to make the Europeans feel good.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The draft 2020 defense authorization bill passed by the Democrat-led House would bar DoD funding to exit the treaty. That is, unless the secretaries of state and defense jointly certify Russia is in material breach and is not trying to return to compliance, and that all the other parties to the treaty concur, or that it\u2019s in the best interest of the U.S. to leave and all other parties to the treaty were consulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An Open Skies pullout would mark a reversal for Trump, who signed a 2019 budget that included $125 million towards the first of two new aircraft to replace the aging Open Skies planes. The White House budget office last year fought off an effort in Congress to defund the OC-135 recapitalization effort, arguing the Air Force needed the money to replace the existing fleet of 1960s-era aircraft with \u201cmodern, capable, and cost-effective aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force has been preparing to replace both the aircraft and its current wet film camera system, which would move to an entirely digital sensor, processing and control suite. It began surveying industry in April 2018 and initially planned to award a contract in 2020 \u2014 although it was unclear Tuesday whether it was still on track to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to a PowerPoint presentation shown during a May 2018 industry day, the service was seeking out two new commercial airliners that could be outfitted with the existing Digital Visual Imaging System. In April 2019, the Air Force noted in an update to its solicitation that it planned to issue a request for proposals for an OC-135 replacement in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, in June it amended the posting with an additional request for information about \u201cother than new\u201d aircraft that could fill the OC-135\u2019s mission \u2014 indicating, perhaps, that the service was not ready to commit to buying new planes and was looking for a more economical alternative. There have been no updates to the solicitation since June 25 and no additional information on when the service might start a formal competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2018\/09\/20\/us-reverses-course-certifies-russian-open-skies-aircraft\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/246129.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US reverses course, certifies Russian Open Skies aircraft<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The U.S. has signed off on a Russian Open Skies plane, but the two sides remain at loggerheads over future flights.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The possible move to abandon Open Skies follows the Trump administration\u2019s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which banned land-based missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, and amid questions over whether the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which applies to weapons with a global reach, will continue past its 2021 expiration date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction policy at the Arms Control Association, noted that U.S. flights over Ukraine and western Russia have yielded valuable data, easily shared between allies. The flights strengthen ties between the U.S. and its allies and reassure non-NATO members on Russia\u2019s periphery, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Trump administration has already laid waste to several international agreements designed to enhance the security of the United States and its allies and it appears the Open Skies Treaty could be next on the kill list,\u201d Reif said. \u201cWithdrawing from the treaty would be another step in the collapse of U.S. leadership and further alienate U.S. allies and partners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reports of a possible withdrawal prompted a backlash on social media from arms control experts like Reif but also former government officials who seemed to have been blindsided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We are now pulling out of the Open Skies Treaty? Really? Please tell me this can\u2019t be true,\u201d former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said in a tweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRussia hates Open Skies because it requires them to let Ukraine fly over their country,\u201d Jon Wolfsthal, a former National Security Council official for arms control and nonproliferation said in a tweet. \u201cThis is another Trump gift to Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top Democratic lawmakers strongly urged the Trump administration on Tuesday against the unilateral withdrawal from the 1992 Open Skies Treaty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["left-column","home","your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[7,8,160,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3446,3384],"class_list":["post-43687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"YKF7YZXHTFGBFPJAQUWGBNS3E4","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2019\/10\/08\/top-dems-warn-trump-against-us-pullout-of-open-skies-treaty\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Top Dems warn Trump against US pullout of Open Skies Treaty - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Top Democratic lawmakers strongly urged the Trump administration on Tuesday against the unilateral withdrawal from the 1992 Open Skies Treaty.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top Dems warn Trump against US pullout of Open Skies Treaty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Top Democratic lawmakers strongly urged the Trump administration on Tuesday against the unilateral withdrawal from the 1992 Open Skies Treaty.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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