SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - An SR-72 in the works?

Tronics · 06-25-07, 08:57 AM

[quote=moose1am]
You don't retire a SR71 that is successful without having a replacement ready to go.[/quote=moose1am]

Actually they've hauled one out of retirement a few times.

After Desert Storm there was a renewed debate on the progress of R&D regarding potential SR-71 replacements, because apparently most of the contracts to date failed to meet certain specifications....mostly budget specifications.

So there were a handful of contracts issued yet again, to the same companies, in the 1990's for potential SR-71 replacements, only one was completed before the Clinton Administration and it was Lockheed's, susposedly it had more or less the same airframe, but then again the signature SR-71 airframe was kicked around since 1960 in one way or another.

Anyways things changed in the midst of the early ninties, and I'm not trying to turn this into a political discussion but it will probably end up that way so I'll just try to state some semi-factual observations.

Bill Clinton believed that the Cold War was over, as many others did, few people forsaw the problems that would happen with 'rogue state scenarios' and crackpot dictatorships rising from the ashes of the Warsaw, and even fewer people cared.

Military spending went from a 'global deterrent' to a 'global pain in the ass' overnight, everything that was deemed unnecessary was cut, immediately and in some cases without informing people.

There was a mass exodus of personnel from all levels in all fields, and as they went into the private sector they inadvertantly and vastly expanded on the situation of military based contracting...which in a twisted irony costs the government more today then ever before.

I left once and resigned...mainly because the USAF came out of the blue and threw a $90,000 resign package at me when I was particularly having a hard time finding stable employment because no one was then (1998) willing to accepet the notion of Information Security as a job field...lol. I left again more recently in 05 after being totally fedup with the entire process but thats another story.

06-25-07, 08:57 AM	#11
Tronics A-ganger Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 78 Downloads: 44 Uploads: 0	[quote=moose1am] You don't retire a SR71 that is successful without having a replacement ready to go.[/quote=moose1am] Actually they've hauled one out of retirement a few times. After Desert Storm there was a renewed debate on the progress of R&D regarding potential SR-71 replacements, because apparently most of the contracts to date failed to meet certain specifications....mostly budget specifications. So there were a handful of contracts issued yet again, to the same companies, in the 1990's for potential SR-71 replacements, only one was completed before the Clinton Administration and it was Lockheed's, susposedly it had more or less the same airframe, but then again the signature SR-71 airframe was kicked around since 1960 in one way or another. Anyways things changed in the midst of the early ninties, and I'm not trying to turn this into a political discussion but it will probably end up that way so I'll just try to state some semi-factual observations. Bill Clinton believed that the Cold War was over, as many others did, few people forsaw the problems that would happen with 'rogue state scenarios' and crackpot dictatorships rising from the ashes of the Warsaw, and even fewer people cared. Military spending went from a 'global deterrent' to a 'global pain in the ass' overnight, everything that was deemed unnecessary was cut, immediately and in some cases without informing people. There was a mass exodus of personnel from all levels in all fields, and as they went into the private sector they inadvertantly and vastly expanded on the situation of military based contracting...which in a twisted irony costs the government more today then ever before. I left once and resigned...mainly because the USAF came out of the blue and threw a $90,000 resign package at me when I was particularly having a hard time finding stable employment because no one was then (1998) willing to accepet the notion of Information Security as a job field...lol. I left again more recently in 05 after being totally fedup with the entire process but thats another story.