Thread

1. walrus01 · 1790727565 · focus · HN ↗

   I'd be more astonished if there isn't something superior to the SR71 (likely unmanned) that has been flying around at night from facilities like Groom Lake for years. Look at how long the RQ180 was flying around in semi-public and known about before it became seen in daylight by plane spotters in Greece. And a long time before that there were public relations approved photos of the Lockheed Martin Polecat.

   There were a series of extremely public quotations from senior DoD officially recently about how they plan to aggressively retire the Global Hawk program (which is a mostly non stealth aircraft), reading between the lines it's because they have something much better.

   edit: for those who haven&#x27;t seen the RQ180: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?client=firefox-b-d&amp;q=RQ180+greece" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?client=firefox-b-d&amp;q=RQ180+gre...

   edit 2 (apologies for the X link): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;MechDesignxyz&#x2F;status&#x2F;2041281689838584193" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;x.com&#x2F;MechDesignxyz&#x2F;status&#x2F;2041281689838584193

   1. tiffanyh · 1790730705 · focus · HN ↗

      Didn’t satellites with superior optics and realtime video streaming … kill the need for an SR71 update?

      1. t2r3121 · 1790731068 · focus · HN ↗

         For visual and SAR, sure, but there are other missions like electronic warfare and signals intelligence that are still well served by aircraft.

         1. qingcharles · 1790746398 · focus · HN ↗

            Those wouldn&#x27;t likely fall under NASA&#x27;s remit and budget, though?

            1. actionfromafar · 1790753618 · focus · HN ↗

               No, but in Trumpistan, does it matter?

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