Sweden and Finland will together conduct an Open Skies observation flight in Ukraine from 5-9 June 2017.
Sweden will act as Lead Nation (LN) of the flight. The combined flight is based on a Technical Agreement (TA) between Finland and Sweden, which states the parties' responsibilities, obligations and cost-sharing arrangements.
The flight will be conducted using a Swedish SAAB340 OS-100-certified surveillance aircraft. A Technical Agreement (TA) stating the parties' responsibilities, obligations and cost-sharing arrangements has been drawn up for the use of the aircraft.
Finland's observation team is led by Major Timo Heinäaho of the Air Force Command.
Open Skies is an agreement that aims to promote transparency and security in Europe. The agreement allows the signatories to conduct observation flights and take aerial photographs over the territories of its member states when these have been planned and announced beforehand. Finland signed the agreement in February 2003.
