WASHINGTON — A
senior US intelligence official warned Wednesday that he has “great concern”
about Russia’s intentions to fly sophisticated surveillance planes over the
United States, saying it would give Russia “a significant advantage."
Russia reportedly announced its intent to submit plans
for the flights using advanced digital cameras under the 2002 Open
Skies Treaty. With more than 30 signatories, including Russia, the US and
the European Union, the treaty established a program of unarmed aerial
surveillance flights giving all participants the ability to gather information
about military forces and activities of concern to them.
Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the
Defense Intelligence Agency, added his voice to the chorus of senior
intelligence and military officials who worry that Russia is taking advantage
of technological advantages to violate the spirit of the treaty — marking a
split with the State Department, which has been defending US participation in
the treaty.
“The things that you can see, the amount of data you
can collect, the things you can do with post-processing, allows Russia, in my
opinion, to get incredible foundational intelligence on critical
infrastructure, bases, ports, all of our facilities,” Stewart said at a
congressional hearing. “So from my perspective, it gives them a significant
advantage.”
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and chairman of the AirLand
subcommittee, asked whether US participation in the treaty is worthwhile,
asserting that Russia is learning more from the US than the other way around.
Stewart said he would “love to deny” Russia the flights.
Russia on Feb. 22 provided its technical data for its
Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft with a digital electro-optical
sensor to the Open Skies Consultative Commission, the Vienna-based
organization charged with facilitating implementation of the treaty.
That initiated a certification period of at least 120 days, in which all
parties, including the United States, will have the opportunity to review Russia’s
technical data, see a demonstration of the sensor operation in action, and
ensure that Russia is fully in compliance with the treaty requirements.
A State Department spokesman issued the following
statement on Wednesday, after Stewart's testimony.
"The Open Skies Treaty enhances confidence and
transparency by allowing the 34 countries that are parties to it to obtain
information on the military forces and activities of other treaty
partners," the State Department spokesman said. "It contributes to
European security by providing images and information on military forces,
including information to verify compliance with arms control agreements.”
Stewart’s comments before the House Armed Services'
Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee come days after the US and
Russia announced an agreement for a partial truce in Syria and amid the
military’s continued wariness of Moscow since it annexed Crimea two years ago.
The president’s budget request for the
Pentagon includes a four-fold increase for the European Reassurance
Initiative, which funds a stepped-up US troop and equipment presence on the
continent. It also includes $3.5 billion for Eastern European infrastructure,
meant to aid the US should it wish to strike through
Russia’s anti-access and area-denial defenses.
Before testifying in a closed, classified session,
Stewart in open session painted a picture of a Russia whose wily military is
modernizing, led by a president whose position is for now secure despite a
shaky economy at home. Russian President Vladimir Putin, with a grip on the
Russian media, is viewed domestically as standing up to the West as Russia
claims its place on the world stage.
“All of us should be as popular as he is viewed in
Russia,” Stewart said.
In the Middle East, Russia’s intervention in the
Syrian civil war allows it to showcase advanced capabilities for US rival Iran,
who could well use resources available as sanctions ease to purchase
advanced weapons from Russia, its “supplier of choice,” Stewart said
Russia’s cooperation on Syria is in part a
distraction for its activities against Ukraine and part of a “grand plan”
to win unspecified concessions from the international community in the Ukraine
conflict, he said.
Meanwhile, the Russian military has been using
stepped-up snap exercises at home to rattle Europe and intentionally blur the
lines between training and rehearsals for activity outside its borders.
“The recent snap exercises have been realistic, they
have been threatening, they have shown a level of sophistication that I have
not seen in 20 or so years,” Stewart said.
Stewart declined to discuss the Russian military’s
maintenance and logistical abilities in an open hearing but said the
nation's armed forces had “systematically modernized their weapons systems, how
they deploy and sustain their forces.”
Russia’s future force will be smaller, but more
capable of handling a range of contingencies on Russia’s periphery and
expeditionary operations, according to Stewart’s testimony for the record. Its
ambitious rearmament program is expected to be challenged by corruption and
industrial inefficiency, Western sanctions, and the poor state of its economy.
Russia places the highest priority on the maintenance
of its robust arsenal of strategic and nonstrategic nuclear weapons, according
to Stewart, who detailed Moscow’s large investments in its nuclear weapons
programs.
Russia’s strategic nuclear forces priorities include
force modernization and command-and-control facilities upgrades, he said.
Russia will field more road-mobile SS-27 Mod-2 ICBMs with multiple
independently targetable re-entry vehicles, deploy more Dolgorukiy class
ballistic missile submarines with SS-N-32 Bulava submarine-launched ballistic
missiles, and continue the development of the RS-26 ICBM and next-generation
cruise missiles.
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