Just two years after Eisenhower first suggested Open Skies in 1955, the first U.N. Emergency Force was deployed in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula to oversee the withdrawal of French, British, and Israeli forces, as well as to create a buffer zone between Israeli and Egyptian forces. U.N. peacekeepers used aircraft not only for transport missions, but also to patrol the Egyptian-Israeli frontier, the Armistice Demarcation Line, and the Sinai coast. The practical use of cooperative aerial inspections thus dates back to 1957. The Sinai has been a major proving ground for aerial inspection. Nations exploit aerial reconnaissance both during war and peace, but this activity is rarely acknowledged, much less explicitly coordinated.
Successful surveillance requires random soities, a variety of sensors, and stealthy tactics.
This traditional approach is still used in other areas, but Israel and Egypt introduced predictability and cooperation in aerial operations over the Sinai. Beginning the recognition of the principle of non-interference during Sinai I, cooperative flights have helped to reduce tension and to avoid accidental downing of manned reconnaissance aircraft operating over disputed territories. In Sinai II, Egypt and Israel went even further in specifying the operational parameters for aerial reconnaissance. They agreed that each country would fly two aircraft along the median line of the buffer zone seven times a week, at an altitude of 15,000 feet, with a flight duration of less than four hours. They also agreed to give at least a six-hour advance notice of each flight.