I was waiting for The War Zone to do an article on the apparent SR-71 revival. The SR-71 engineer they interviewed believes that the most-likely thing being done is bringing the Blackbird back to be used as a testbed for new, high-speed engines.
I was waiting for The War Zone to do an article on the apparent SR-71 revival. The SR-71 engineer they interviewed believes that the most-likely thing being done is bringing the Blackbird back to be used as a testbed for new, high-speed engines.
Uh huh.
Yep.
They seem to be fine with that, just causing Kessler Syndrome.
Now the SR 72 is not retired, because satellite based anything becomes extremely difficult to achieve, at best, and you can put cameras and comms datalinks on them, and have them do what satellites can now not do.
Could also do ground attack: Mach 4-6 from half a continent away, over to a target area, slow down, open bomb bay, drop a glide bomb (or a lot of em), close up, speed back up and fly away.
You now have comms intel and air superiority, at least in an offensive sense; you destroyed the previous paradigm with your new paradigm.