Think its possible lockhead or some other government contracted

Honestly it's all but certain that it was replaced by something else that we don't know about. The only question is really just how many different types have replaced it.

I'd bet we're on the 2nd or 3rd generation of classified replacement types by now. I doubt it's anything that exotic, probably more along the lines of the Kingfish or a stealth supercruiser, like a YF-23 on steroids.

>>34574547

X-10

we know
we don't know

we don't know what we don't know
but we know we don't know what we don't know

do you fucking get it you dummy

>>34574602
Or satellites just got that good.

>>34574547
It's called the satellite, anon. Cutting edge, you may not have heard of it.

>>34574547
Lockead Morton?

Entirely possible, but in an age where satellites can give far better imagery than the SR71 ever could, faster and without even needing a man in the cockpit, I kinda doubt it.

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>>34574547
here it is

>>34574602
Satellites. Recon satellites are good enough to the point that spy planes aren't even useful.

You know that NRO donated 2 replacement satellites for the Hubble telescope because they considered them obsolete?

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>>34574621
>>34574635
>>34574621
Ya but we have to think of evolution of the sr-71, sure a satellite is just as good for taking pictures but what if they could make it even faster and fit it out with ordnance.

>>34574547
There are almost assuredly designs, materials, and possibly even small scale testing mock-ups for a better SR-71, it's just that their hasn't been any reason to actually build one. "Flies high, gotta go fast," aren't exactly under-researched concepts in the aero industry.

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>>34574547
Yes

>>34574704
>>34574687

>muh dick

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>>34574704

That's an RQ-170.

The Iranians shot one of those down recently.

>>34574547
>>34574602

Your an idiot, its called a satalite

>>34574618
>>34574621
>>34574632
>>34574635
>>34574649

>>34574768
ya we read those replies already, ur just turning the thread into a echo chamber dick head.

>>34574618
>>34574649

Satellite orbits are predictable, especially by peer states such as Russia and China, who like the US, times the movement/outing of "the good stuff" so that it happens with no ISR assets orbiting overhead.

Furthermore, the imagery is still far from "instantaneous" when it comes from a satellite, as you typically need to wait a few hours or more for one to line up over the target.

Now, building a satellite constellation with a faster response rate/fewer gaps requires you to more than double the number of birds that you have up at a given moment. At $1-2bn a pop, that's not an inexpensive proposition.

By all accounts, the KH-11/12 constellation is smaller now than it was in the 80s, and my guess is that they figured that even at $1bn a pop, maintaining a fleet of 3-5 aircraft was still cheaper and more flexible than launching 4-6 $2bn Hubble clones to get worse performance when it came to on-demand ISR.

>>34574687
No matter how fast you go, you can't beat something that is already there overhead, anon.

Higher speed means lower agility and more vulnerability to missiles. The SR71 was retired because of that.

>>34574768
We have discussed the problems with sattelites ad infinitum. They are not omniscient and can be avoided, even an amateur astronomer knows where they all are and when.

>>34574789
>Satellite orbits are predictable

If only there was a way to have a satellite overhead, all the time. Geostationary, like. Can't hide from a satellite if there's no downtime.

If you don't want the big lens needed at that range, rip off private corporations like Planetary's Doves and fly a swarm of cubesats in low orbit.

>>34574798
This guy gets it. They're also so horrifically expensive to procure that they make the A-12 Oxcart program look like buying a fleet of COIN Cessnas.

>>34574798
>They are not omniscient and can be avoided

t. Soviet intel analyst circa 1970

>>34574822
>Spend billions to put a geostationary orbit satellite over a sensitive Russian/Chinese facility IF you can find it.
>They just move said facility for less money than it cost for you to put a satellite up.

>>34574822
To return the resolution required for good ISR from LEO already requires an optical telescope assembly as big as the fucking Hubble, if not larger. To do the same from GSO, or 23,000 miles up, would require an OTA larger than anything currently in the operation terrestrially.

Lobbing a KH-11/12 into LEO already costs the better part of a Ford Class carrier. Lobbing your monstrous 30-meter wundersatellite into GSO would be Apollo program levels of expensive.

>>34574768
>Your

>>34574848
Today it would take a couple thousand cubesats to provide global coverage down to half a meter resolution.

The NRO wouldn't be in this situation (assuming they are) if they weren't pathologically protective of their bureaucratic niche as information bottleneck.

More likely, recon flights are for ESM, not EO data.

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>>34574602
>ultra version of the YF-23
A man can dream.

>>34574547
Various spooks and former engineers form LM skunkworks etc, have been quoted as saying, "if you can imagine it, have it."
or something along the lines of "all that star trek stuff? we have it"

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honestly this is probably it but its in space now and it just stays up their like a satellite but is actually way more manoeuvrable, i could be wrong tho.


http://www.businessinsider.com/details-about-air-force-space-plane-that-spent-2-years-in-space-2017-5

>>34574872

This guy knows what's up - there's no way we don't have something stealthy that can loiter at high altitude over denied airspace for cost reasons alone.

Do you think the live feed from the OBL raid came from a satellite? I'd put money on an RQ-170 or similar instead.

>>34574547
probably man they probably got shit like in star wars think about it they had sr71 all the way back in the 50's hell they had stelth crafts back in the 30's radar tv's all that technology


bet the us government evn has holodecks both won't release it to the public cos they are cunts

>>34574687
>what if they could make it even faster and fit it out with ordnance
We DID look into something like that but cancelled it. It's called project SLAM (Supersonic Low Altitude Missile). It was essentially an unpiloted SR-71 that could drop around 16 warheads in one sortie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile

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>>34574547

no not at all

>>34574941

> Weapons delivery system, not a reconnisamce aircraft

>>34574916
Google the AARS/QUARTZ programs

>>34574547
>implying they don't still fly it

>>34574955
Compare that planform to the supposedly"cancelled" Kingfish

>>34574960
He asked if it could be fitted with ordnance, in case you could not read. That's the closest thing to it.

>>34574960
Technically, it could do reconnaissance and it wouldn't even need a camera. You'd just have preprinted reports that the surveyed area was reduced to a charred radioactive wasteland with blank spaces for the co-ordinates.

>>34574912
no it's not you fucking imbecile. You can't even fucking spell. Go back to /x/.

>>34575092
Exactly. The X-37 is nothing but an ISS external experiment rack that has wings and can fly back to earth on its own. It simply allows the USAF to test materials, etc in space on their own timeframe and away from prying eyes.

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>>34575106
And it's not in space right now. The guy isn't even keeping himself up to date with what is going on with it yet he claims to know its secrets and its purpose.

>>34574941
The SLAM is a terrain-hugging supersonic Tomahawk with a bomb bay and a nuclear ramjet. Nothing like what you described.

>>34574789
If you had several of these satellites though, something resembling the NROL programs, that is irrelevant.

Regular google maps uses satellite images with a 30cm per pixel resolution. This is because that is the law, not because they couldn't get any clearer images. What the gubbament is using is at the very least, 10cm per pixel, most likely lower.

>>34574714
>>34574687
>Not knowing about the YF-12.
>Not knowing it was the only interceptor purpose designed to destroy entire squadrons of Soviet bombers and escorts by itself.
>Not knowing the way it was to complete its mission was to haul ass to intercept, launch an airburst nuke missile then turn around and kick it to mach fuck you to escape the blast.

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>>34574793
The SR-70 didnt have to worry about missiles. It literally can and has outrun them

>>34575762
why are their hands so detailed?

>>34575092
>i could be wrong.

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>>34575762
>what is reaction time

Of course it can outrun something fired too late. And because of that speed, it can't turn tight enough to evade missiles fired anticipating its trajectory, via a semi-modern fire control system.

This is why it was retired, and why the XB-70 Valkyrie was cancelled in favor of stealth.

Speed = missile immunity is a meme that died in the 1980s among educated people. Please catch up.

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>>34575785
You are flapping you gums about something you know nothing about.

Name one missile that can go faster than mach 3.5 and then make it 16 miles up

The plane dosent need to turn when it outruns every missile that can be shot at it

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http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/BlackDawn_1.pdf
>In April of 1986, the first design contracts for the NASP program were awarded. Contractors included were Boeing, Lockheed, McDD, General Dynamics, Rockwell Intl., and propulsion contractors Pratt & Whitney and GE. Rocketdyne later contributed to NASP under its own in-house funding. In late 1987, Lockheed and Boeing -- the 2 contractors having the most real-world experience with high-speed aircraft development -- were strangely dropped from the NASP program by the DoD.

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>>34575871
Congratulations, you're smarter than the Cold War USAF (and everyone who can read an E-M diagram).

Never go full Dunning Kruger m8.

>>34575871
amraam shot from f-15 ..

basically anything that is not light air launched missile

most of slav shit missiles like 9M82 or 5V21 for ground based

>>34575871
I'll try to explain at a level you can understand.

A race car is going 150 mph.

A cardboard box sits on the road. How fast does the box need to go to hit the car?

>>34574822
>Geostationary
Only works at the equator. If you wanted to look for something far from the equator, like Russia, picture quality would be sacrificed

>>34574822
>Geostationary over Russia
That's not how orbits work you fucking halibut

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>>34575967
Armraam shot at the f15 ceiling of 65000 feet will just make it if there was an sr71 directly above it at 85000 feet but thats nevwr going to happen. Also why would an american f15 shoot at an american sr71?

Check and mate
*mike drop*

>>34574978

Thats a very different project from Kingfish.

>>34576011
>What did he mean by this?

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>>34575871
>Name one missile that can go faster than mach 3.5 and then make it 16 miles up

Sparrow, Skyflash, Aspide, AMRAAM, R-40, R-33...pretty much every medium range AAM.

>The plane dosent need to turn when it outruns every missile that can be shot at it

SR-71 and MiG-25R weren't capable of outrunning missiles. What those did outrun was decision making process. Israelis failed to intercept Soviet MiG-25R's during Yom Kippur War with Phantoms, next generation fighters had more automated missile locking and firing process. Essentially every fighter made since mid 70's could easily intercept high flying mach 3+ recon plane.

>>34578630
You had my interest, now you have my attention. Do tell, what you can, at least.

>>34574547

yes, see:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2015/sr-72.html

The SR-72 is currently just a "proposed" system, but Lockmart is being unusually open about how they want to build one. Which tells us that they've probably already built it or are in the process of building it right now.

Also, air-launched recon planes like the Blackstar or X-51 absolutely exist.

>>34574621
>>34574768

Satellites don't get into orbit by themselves, the USAF has a bonafide reason to build a vehicle fast enough to launch them without needing huge boosters launched from Vandenberg.

>>34575777
>telling people i could be wrong is a good excuse for being a complete fuckknuckle

>>34574547
It is posibble but worthless. They are against China who knows everything they do and can make necessary countermeasures. And what's a spyplane do anyway? It can spy Russia but there's nothing to see. It can't enter China. What will it be built for? Afghanistan?

>>34574903

Too add some clarity to this comment, waaaay back in the late 80s NASA canned the X-33 SSTO because it's composite fuel tank kept breaking. Well, since then composites have come a long way and all aircraft procured since then (the B-2, V-22, F-22 and F-35) all have composite frames as does the 787.

Which is to say, the X-33's only major design issue was totally resolved. Which leads credibility to the theory that Lockmart has probably built it, even as a sub-scale UAV demonstrator that is launched from a regular aircraft.

>>34574649
Satellites have a fixed, predictable orbit. It's hard to predict a recon plane that flies so high and fast that you may not even realize it took your picture. No time to hide the guns before the satellite gets there

>>34574922
Pajeet please your betters are talking.
Excuse yourself, for your own sake

>>34575762
>The SR-70 didnt have to worry about missiles. It literally can and has outrun them
No. The SR-71 only ever operated over areas where we knew we could handle the air defenses - namely, North Vietnam, North Korea, and the very periphery of Soviet airspace.

North Vietnam, being the most common target of SR-71 missions, had an air defense network that was hindered by the poor strategic depth of the country - they couldn't realistically create the early warning network necessary - and the fact that the US had developed the EW equipment to counter their IADS. A U-2 could have done the same job had we thrown the right jamming equipment on it. And even then, a sole SR-71 did come back with a piece of shrapnel in the tail.

Flights around the Soviet Union would also perform regular passes over Sweden, and the Swedes would take it upon themselves to "intercept" the SR-71 on at least one occasion. The Viggen may not have been fast enough to keep up with the SR-71, but the regular flightpaths of the SR-71 and coordination with ground controllers meant that a Viggen could zoom-climb at the right time and secure a lock.

Allegedly, the Soviets achieved a lock with similar practices - they staged interceptors all around the flightpath and sortied them all towards an intercept point that the SR-71 passed through.

The SR-71 avoided being downed not because it was invulnerable to enemy fire but because of conservative flying and restraint on the parts of those who could down it.

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>>34575532
>YF-12
>Good

Any benefits the YF-12's speed would have offered were moot considering the ridiculous operating procedures for the Blackbird and the horrendous costs associated with it. The plane alone was $120 million each in today's money, and that's not taking into account the operating costs you're going to have from a plane leaking fuel on the runways that requires aerial refueling after takeoff.

The F-106 did everything the YF-12 would have done better and cheaper. It was a quarter the cost to procure, it carried the same missiles, it had double the climb rate, and it would likely have even had a faster time-to-target because the pilot didn't need to waste his time topping off his tanks before going out on the mission.

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>>34575871
Built one in 1984.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT

>>34575871
>Name one missile that can go faster than mach 3.5 and then make it 16 miles up
How about Mach 10 and 19 miles?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_(missile)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZGaMt7UgQ

>>34579447

That is official Hughes radar division artwork, from the 90s

The aircraft depicted is claimed to be the F-121 sentienal/centennial, mach 3.5+

The intake is in the nose blended into the lower fuselage, and very much like some design/wind tunnel studies from the 80s.

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>>34574547
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=57b_1500272457

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>>34580560
Nice. I'm usually one posting that post when YF-12 comes up. Something I'd like add to is the fact that SR-71's weren't served by regular KC-135's, those required specialized version of tanker.

>it carried the same missiles

No, it didn't. While AIM-4, AIM-26 and AIM-47 are all called Falcon those are all quite different missiles, 4th model same missile family was AIM-54 Phoenix. AIM-4 weight is about 60kg, AIM-26 weight is about 90kg and AIM-47 weighted 385kg. Just the warhead of AIM-47 was heavier than AIM-4.

>>34574903
>"all that star trek stuff? we have it"

They have faster than light propulsion, handheld directed energy weapons, EM shields or artificial gravity? I doubt it.
Maybe they were thinking about those small pads they had laying around in ST:NG.

>>34574547
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNeD57-RVg