An SR-72 in the works?

[bradclark1]

Ten years after the Air Force retired the SR-71 spy plane, Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works appears to be back at work developing a new Mach-6 reconnaissance plane, sources said.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/20...e_sr72_070617/

[Neal Stevens]

4000 mph ... wow. But unmanned? Where's the fun in that?

[bookworm_020]

Robotic's, taking the fun out of flying

Going that fast at that seed is going to be hard to achive, and to stay stealthy is going to be near impossible. I don't envy the aircraft designers!

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by bookworm_020

Robotic's, taking the fun out of flying

Going that fast at that seed is going to be hard to achive, and to stay stealthy is going to be near impossible. I don't envy the aircraft designers!

But do you need to stay stealthy at a speed that is faster and higher than almost any SAM in existence out there anyway? :hmm:

[Mush Martin]

assumably Scramjet and Unmanned , prior to SR71 they did a single
engine 3000 mph reconasaince drone.
It shows lineage with tacit blue I think
in the engine/body/tail config , Lifting body also, I think.

the suggestion of heat signature being problematic is interesting.
Diamond edges on a diamond shape might do. plus a cold air bypass
injection into the exhaust.

I think it may be detectable by a type of geo stationary sattelite and ground
station network of composite sensrs. in a Bi Static array.

[fatty]

Originally Posted by CCIP

But do you need to stay stealthy at a speed that is faster and higher than almost any SAM in existence out there anyway? :hmm:

Sometimes we don't like to stir up diplomatic frustrations by allowing the specimens to know they're under the microscope

[JSLTIGER]

OK...my only problem...if its so top-secret, how come we know about it?

[Letum]

Why dont they just develop a missile with the survelance equipment in? :hmm:

And didin't spy planes die in the age of the satalite?

[Oberon]

:hmm: :hmm:

I see they've learnt some things from Aurora...that's looking good. Nice design!

[ASWnut101]

Originally Posted by Letum

Why dont they just develop a missile with the survelance equipment in? :hmm:

And didin't spy planes die in the age of the satalite?

To keep others from obtaining the technology you just launched at them, not to mention preventing a major global-thermonuclear war (seriously, one may think the missile is an incoming ICBM/SLBM and start a nuke fest).


And there is no substitute for the stealth of the aircraft. Satilites are watched by other satillites, ect.


***************

It just needs to be manned, though. That would be amazing to ride in.

[Tronics]

No spy planes did not die with the age of the 3 meter satelite resolution.

Satelites are great for getting the big picture, however the handful of super-awesome-mega-resolution satelites are constantly baing timeshared by almost all US agencies and the like.

When I was on my way out of Chairforce intel the baseline standard satelite resolution was about 9 feet (3 meters), now I hear that the new baseline is soon to be 6 feet (2 meters) with a a handful of super-awesome-mega-resolution satalites almost having a 2 foot margin now.

Soon they will get to under a foot which is nice because it can provide nice spiffy super high res (5+ Gigabyte) reconnisance images down to even counting the shingles on the roof of your house.

The only problem for this is that these satalites are the far minority in their fields and are constantly fought over by federal agencies and interdepartments due to their ovbious value.

Also when considering orbital satelites those have primetime windows of opportunity as they coast effortlessly over out heads about every 100 minutes or so which is usually the amount of time that it takes them to complete an orbit.

So there are times when big brother has to switch his glasses out to another pair as it rounds the bend over the horizon of the specified area.

So in short satelites are great for getting daily or even hourly updates on extremely high priority intel targets, however for continous survailence or more immediate options you turn to either drones, planes, and finally men.

Each one has a cost in both dectivity, time and risk.

With spyplanes usually the time to target time is very low due to their speed, however this speed also sometimes compromises their stealth if they are going to fly over a target with a even a 'semi-modern' radar defence/warning system, plus their potential lost cost is the highest.

Drones on the other hand usually have a moderate to long time until target depending on their deployment positions, however their small size and slowish speed usually make them stealthy enough to get to the target area mostly undetced and get a few minutes worth of constant survailence before they are noticed. They are moderately cheap and totally expendable. Most now carry a payload or are themselves a payload that can be used as an impromptu bomb if a good enough of atarget situation arises.

Men or more specifically recon specalists range from dedicated special forces recon units such as the USMC Force Recon to basic 1-2 man USAF Far Area Recon jump teams...they usually take the most time to get to a target, but potentially have the lowest risk of detection, however their cost is high, (more then the drone but less then the spyplane), because where as men are expendable experience is not.

[Letum]

What a well written post!
thanks!

[tycho102]

Originally Posted by Oberon

:hmm: :hmm:
I see they've learnt some things from Aurora.

Refueling liquid methane is risky business and how difficult it is to run a pulse-jet at low altitudes and speeds.


SR-72 has a nice UAV design. I wonder if it is autonomous or semi-autonomous, because they'd better have a plan if EMP or a solar flare knocks out our satellites. I imagine the flight-profile is easy enough as long as it doesn't need refueling.

[Heibges]

How many of the Subcontractors are in Murtha's district?

[bradclark1]

Originally Posted by Heibges

How many of the Subcontractors are in Murtha's district?

Somehow I don't think that has anything to do with it. This time anyway.