To perform flights, according to the Open Skies Treaty, Russia uses three types of aircraft: twin-engine turboprop An-30B, three-engine jet Tu-154M-LK1 and twin-engine Tu-214ON. The first two are built on platforms of the Soviet era, by now they are technically outdated and have no development prospects. The Tu-214ON, on the other hand, is the latest development, which may well find application, even if the Treaty is terminated.

An-30B

In addition to Russia, the An-30B is also used for flights under the Treaty by Ukraine, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan. This aircraft was created in Soviet times especially for aerial photography and airborne geophysical work. As a rule, An-30B is equipped with the following cameras: one AFP-42/100 and one A-723, plus three AFA-54/50.

In fact, the obsolete An-24 developed by the Experimental design bureau named after O.K. Antonov. During the division of the USSR, this enterprise went to Ukraine and today it operates on the territory of Nezalezhnaya. Due to its age and low flight technical data, as well as the lack of modernization programs, the An-30 practically went out of service. Only a few units survived in flight.

Thus, the old "An" never presented any threat to the USA and does not present it today. Firstly, it is too old to threaten anyone, Secondly, Russian An-30Bs were used only for flights over European states, and never flew over the United States.

Tu-154M-LK1

The second type - Tu-154M - was also created during the Soviet era as a passenger airliner with 164-180 seats. By now, it is also very outdated and cannot compete with more modern airliners of similar dimensions in terms of the composition of onboard equipment, fuel consumption and environmental qualities (gas emission, noise level on the ground). Last year, the rare surviving operable specimens finally completed their "career" in airlines: they no longer carry passengers or goods.

A small fleet of vehicles of this type continues to be used by government agencies for the transportation of personnel and property. The largest number of Tu-154s for various purposes was preserved in the park of the RF Ministry of Defence. Due to the specifics of the military department, its planes fly much less frequently than that of airlines, and therefore they still have a certain resource reserve (the number of flight hours and take-off-landing cycles).

In a word, the three-engine "carcass" is no longer a "miracle of technology", but rather a decrepit old man who is living out his last years.

In the interests of the Open Sky program, a single Tu-154M-LK1 from the Chkalovsky airfield, tail number RF-85655, was involved. This is the aircraft laboratory of the Yuri Gagarin State Research Institute of the CTC, which has undergone additional equipment. It was this instance that flew over America, since the An-30B could not get there due to insufficient flight range.

Since almost all flights within the general quota of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus were made by this particular aircraft, the relevant American departments have always paid close attention to it. In this regard, in 2016, the State Department had to issue a special clarification on the compliance of the modified Tu-154M-LK1 with all the requirements of the Treaty. There, in particular, the following was stated: "The certification of the digital electro-optical camera on the Tu-154 aircraft was passed, and this required a long, thoroughly detailed process."

Russian sources clarify: relatively recently, the car was equipped with a new digital infrared camera - in fact, it was certified and received US approval. A specific copy of the aircraft is also equipped with a side-looking radar "Ronsar" from the Research Institute "Kulon". Since the Open Skies Treaty imposes very strong restrictions on the performance of radars, the practical value of the data obtained by them is low. Cameras provide much more valuable information.

Tu-214ON

The next step to improve the aviation technology involved in conducting aerial inspections under the Treaty was the creation of a specialized version of the Tu-214 with the "ON" index. The work was ordered and funded by the military department. Kazan aircraft plant has assembled a couple of such machines. The first public display of the RF-64519 was held at the MAKS-2011 aerospace show, and a couple of years later the second RF-64525 was displayed in Zhukovsky.

The aircraft are equipped with an aviation surveillance complex developed by the Vega Concern. The "main caliber" is the same OSDCAM4060 digital camera with a resolution of 30 cm, previously tested on the retrofitted Tu-154M-LK1. In total there are five photos and three television cameras (140 megapixels) on board. In this sense, the new aircraft is at the level of its predecessors.

From the point of view of practical application, the Tu-214ON is much better than the Tu-154M-LK1 due to the use of a much more modern platform - the Tupolev-214 passenger airliner. Due to the large aspect ratio of the wing, moreover, recruited from the so-called supercritical profiles, Tu-214ON has a high ratio of lift to aerodynamic resistance (the so-called aerodynamic quality) - 18 units. Perm PS-90A engines make a great contribution to ensuring high flight range and duration indicators. With similar mass-dimensional parameters, the range and flight duration of the Tu-214ON is higher than the Tu-154M-LK1, due to the higher aerodynamic quality of the airframe and low fuel consumption - 3400 versus 5400 kg/h at full load.

These advantages are especially evident when flying from Russia to the United States and back - there are fewer intermediate landings, and those that have to be made take place along procedural formalities, because technically the Tu-214ON can fly across the ocean without refuelling. And most importantly, due to the better characteristics of the aircraft, during one observation flight, it becomes possible to inspect a larger number of objects of the receiving side.

The Tu-214ON aircraft took a long time to be "brought to mind". First, he passed tests in our country. In the fall of 2018, the car was presented for international certification. The certified party must provide detailed information about the aircraft and the characteristics of the set of equipment installed on it. During certification, it provides full access to the aircraft and its sensors, and also performs equipment calibration flights. Then the obtained images are analyzed in order to establish the minimum flight altitude at which the aircraft with the corresponding on-board complex can be used during observation flights.

On the website of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation you can find a message dated September 24, 2018 (https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12196778@egNews) where, in particular, it says: “Certification of a new observation aircraft allows to expand the possibilities for effective performance of observation flights, including over the territories of Great Britain, the USA and Canada ”.

The new Russian inspector plane was presented to 72 representatives of foreign states who visited the Kubinka airfield on September 2, 2018. The culmination of the international certification procedure was the signing by the American representative of the final protocol on the examination of the Russian aircraft on the margins of the Open Skies Treaty Advisory Commission in Vienna. Thus, the United States joined the other 22 states parties to the Treaty, which approved the Tu-214ON. “It was obvious that from the technical point of view there were no complaints against the Russian Federation, and the signing of the document was only a matter of time,” - the RF Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The first few flights of the Tu-214ON aircraft with tail number RF-64525 - over Texas, New Mexico and Colorado - were performed in April last year from Rosecrans airfield in Missouri. Above the inspected objects, the "carcass" dropped to one and a half to two kilometres and dropped the speed to 500 km/h, to the next point it followed at an altitude of about five kilometres, and during the passes it climbed nine to ten kilometres.

Foreign analogues

How does the Tu-214ON compare with the best foreign technology for a similar purpose? It must be said here that the field for competition between the manufacturers of the corresponding technology is here strongly limited by the provisions of the Treaty, which impose severe restrictions on the capabilities of sensor equipment. After all, the essence of "Open Skies" is to provide the participating countries with equal conditions, and not to give advantages to any side.

The Open Skies Treaty contains procedures for certification of on-board equipment, including technical ones, for the compliance of the used sensor combination with the established authorization restrictions. However, aircraft manufacturers can distinguish themselves by making their aircraft more economical, reliable and modern in terms of the speed and quality of processing the collected information. And in this field, Russian aircraft builders and developers of on-board equipment have achieved success.

The closest foreign aircraft to the Tu-214ON is a German aircraft based on the Airbus A319 airliner. It is interesting that earlier for conducting aerial inspections, the united Germany used the Russian Tu-154M, which it inherited from the former GDR, but this "carcass" crashed and was written off. The Airbus was chosen as a replacement. In 2017, one such aircraft, previously owned by Lufthansa, was converted into an observation aircraft, mainly through the installation of photographic equipment.

Aerodynamics and parameters of the power plant of the A319 and Tu-214 are approximately at the same level, and since the "Airbus" is smaller in size, it shows lower fuel consumption. At the same time, the Tu-214ON is much more advanced due to the presence of a modern complex on board, which includes television and infrared cameras (with a resolution of 50 cm), a side-looking radar, a digital computing unit and a navigation support system. The need for radar arises in bad weather (cloudiness, precipitation), and infrared devices - at night. In a word, these technical means do not provide advantages in collecting information with good visibility, but allow to extend the weather time interval for the use of aircraft. In general, in terms of the totality of qualities, the Tu-214ON is today the best in its class.

Note that a number of DON member countries do not dare to go along the path of creating specialized aircraft for this project due to cost savings. Some of them, for example, Canada, limited themselves to the modification of military transport aircraft of the C-130 Hercules type, installing removable containers with photo equipment on their underwing pylons. This is a simple and fairly effective solution, which, however, does not provide full disclosure of the potential provided to a country party to the Treaty in terms of the efficiency of information collection when performing inspection flights over the territories of other states.

In terms of the composition of the onboard equipment, the American OS-135B is the closest to the Tu-214ON foreign analogue. They are close in dimension. Normal takeoff weight of the "American" is 135 tons, in overload - 146, which is 23-32% more than that of the "carcass". However, the Russian vehicle is longer (46 versus 41.5 meters) and has a wider fuselage (3.8 meters versus 3.66).

Since observation flights, as a rule, are very long, it is important to provide comfortable working conditions for the crew members and representatives of the receiving party - and sometimes their total number on board reaches forty people. And here the Tu-214ON provides more comfortable conditions and for each specialist on board, there is more interior space.

The wing span of the OC-135B is less than the Tu-214ON: about 40 meters versus 42, but the area is larger - 226 square meters versus 184. Together with more efficient engines (the bypass ratio of the Permian is about 5 versus 1.4 for the American TF-33 ) all this gives Tu-214ON a noticeable, approximately one and a half times, advantage in the range and duration of the flight. As for the capabilities of the target equipment (cameras, movie cameras, radars), the aircraft are similar in characteristics. The main disadvantages of OS-135B are an outdated platform and high wear and tear of specific copies that have survived to this day.

In short, the Tu-214ON today is the most modern and technically advanced aircraft in the world, involved in air inspections under the Open Skies Treaty. This is a great achievement of Russian aircraft manufacturers and developers of target equipment, and a serious irritant for the United States, where, by definition, all the best and most perfect should be.