Open Skies Treaty Update, February 2020

An independent attempt to explain Vayl Oxford’s update to the House Armed Services Committee regarding the Open Skies Treaty.

I haven’t met Vayl Oxford, the Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, I haven’t talked to Mr Oxford, I haven’t bumped into him on the street, seen him speak, or communicated with him in any way, but I’m sure he’s a good guy, because I hear good things! Unfortunately, I don’t know if the question from Rep Don Bacon of Nebraska’s 3rd District caught him off guard, but his answer at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on February 11th was not entirely representative of what has taken place in 2020. I give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s a director, he’s being briefed by someone, and that person clearly isn’t explaining the entire context of events correctly to him. I can’t think of any other reason he would have misled the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, which he clearly wasn’t intentionally doing.

~1:52:34 “..last fall working with the joint staff policy and national security council there was a determination made to actually increase the strategic value of every mission that we flew. So we’ve actually, without going…