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Russia, U.S. meet about joint air missions

In an event unthinkable 20 years ago, officials from the Russian and U.S. air forces met recently to discuss cooperation on theater security.

The meetings, held April 27 to May 1, have been in the works for over a year, according to Maj. Scott Ogledzinski, deputy chief of the Europe and Eurasia branch for U.S. Air Forces in Europe Headquarters.

They were a big step forward in U.S.-Russian air force interactions in that they were attended by action officers from both sides. Previously, most meetings between the services had been put on by and for general officers, Ogledzinski said, producing ideas but few new programs.

These meetings produced plenty of “future cooperation possibilities in the near term,” Ogledzinski said. The talks focused on common goals between the services and practicing the kind of joint peacekeeping missions envisioned for the partnership in Europe and beyond.

For instance, the Russian delegation expressed interest in taking part in the Vigilant Eagle exercise planned for August 2010. The exercise, put on by NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, could feature a scenario in which Russian air assets intercept a hijacked commercial jet and hand it off to NORAD jets as it passed out of Russian airspace, Ogledzinski said. Two planning meetings are in the works to bring Russia into the exercise.

Another major area of interest to both sides is airlift interoperability, which would play an enormous role in any future peacekeeping operations in a multinational environment, according to Jose A. Gabilondo, chief of USAFE’s Europe and Eurasia branch.

Russian and U.S. airmen got a look at each others’ airlift assets during the Torgau 2007 exercises, hosted at sites in Russia and Germany. USAFE schooled the Russian delegates on C-130 operations, while the Russians showed off the Il-76 medium-range airlifter. Delegates to the recent talks expressed interest in putting on more such familiarizations in the near future.

Ogledzinski, who arranged the meetings, called the session “a great success story.”

“Both sides came to the table speaking openly, honestly and candidly, so it was a venue which provided an atmosphere of free-flowing ideas and thought,” he said.

The U.S. delegates hope to make the meetings an annual event, with next year’s iteration in Moscow, Ogledzinski said. Such meetings would have to be approved as part of the U.S.-Russia work plan for next year, currently being hashed out by air force representatives on both sides.