Hi, Spy!

| August 15, 2019

There is a joint agreement about spy plane flyovers that was in the news. They get to do it to us, but we also get to do it to them.

Russian spy plane spotted flying over Chicago

From the WGN article:  CHICAGO — Just as Chicagoans were settling into dinner, and the White Sox were in the middle of a doubleheader on the South Side Tuesday, a Russian Air Force jet flew over Chicago at high altitude, likely collecting reconnaissance along the way.

The flights are allowed under the Treaty on Open Skies, which permits member nations to conduct pre-arranged aerial surveillance over each other’s territory. The flights are meant to give member nations the opportunity to confirm each other are abiding by the rules of military treaties. Rules require the planes to be unarmed but they do contain high tech surveillance and monitoring equipment.

Radar imagery provided to WGN by FlightRadar24 shows the Tupolev jet departed Dayton, Ohio, Tuesday in route to Great Falls, Montana. The plane was flying at roughly 36,000 feet as it approached the Indiana-Illinois border and made a sharp turn north sending it directly over Chicago and just west of Milwaukee. Naval Station Great Lakes is located along that route in Chicago’s northern suburbs. – article

Wish I’d known. I’d have gone out and shown them what I think of them… ? … with both hands.


Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Cold War, Russia, Usual Suspects

Comments (14)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. The Other Whitey says:

    Is their imaging equipment good enough to detect middle fingers from that altitude?

  2. MIKE GUENTER says:

    Surely they’ve caught up to our seventies technology. I believe we had a sattelite that had a camera that could read the date on a dime in the middle of a parking lot from 22,000 miles in orbit.

    • DavidatWork17 says:

      I used to work at Offutt where the 97th flies the US version of these things. The equipment in the mission compartment is regulated by treaty so that both sides have access to the same quality. Last I heard, both were still using film cameras.

      • 5th/77th FA says:

        Mike as a former member of an MI Det (ARS), I couldn’t really tell you how good our cameras were in the ’70s, without having to…well you know. I will say this, when it was time to “test” stuff I was outside with a pocket full of change.

        “show them what I think…” With both cheeks and a vertical smile! FIFY

        • Bill M says:

          I remember being in an office on an official visit and seeing raw film of some of our surveillance showing a Russian aerial vehicle. There’s an old saying that on a clear day you can see forever. Sure looked like forever to me. (Mid-80s)

  3. Mason says:

    The plane probably took more fire than they did over Syria.

  4. Bob Drennan says:

    Flew over Great Mistakes? They want to see how switching from push ups to planking

  5. Sarge says:

    There is one parked at Hickam right now.

  6. The Stranger says:

    Dayton…so I’m assuming Wright-Patt? How does that work? Or do they use civilian airports? Curious about the logistics. How about crew rest?

  7. mr. sharkman says:

    For the record, Russia (under the direct control of Putin) aided the US in the GWOT.

    The story of how Putin rapidly decided to support the US 100% in the days following 11SEP01 is more than worthy of a TAH ‘article’.

    Prior to the era of the Obama state dept., the US had joint large-scale training exercises with the Russians.

    There are even *rumors* (nudge, wink-wink) out there of *joint anti-terror ops* involving the US military and Russian military.

    Let’s not forget that the Russian intel services were trying to be good neighbors when they warned us about the Tsarnev brothers, before the Obama-led/corrupted FBI completely dropped the ball. I could write more – a lot more – on this whole fiasco, and I’m willing to bet that what I wrote would shock and anger most TAH readers.

    Additionally, going way back, the first warnings to Fmr. President Clinton involving N. Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weaponry (in violation of a highly-touted – by the Clinton administration – treaty) came from…you guessed it…The Russians.

    So maybe, next time, when given the chance…remember that Russia and Her Russians are occasional adversaries – not absolute sworn ideological foes.

    She/they are, in fact, occasional allies in matters that rarely see the light of day. Even many years later.

    My $.02.


  8. mr. sharkman says:


    Yea…them damn Rooskies verifying compliance for a treaty that they and the USA both negotiated and signed!