Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Is there a replacement for the SR-71?

Sorry boys, but satellites and low-cost, low RCS drones are the way of the present (and foreseeable future) for quick reaction intel or post-strike BDA.

Which is why it's designated the L-24.

see:

http://www.space.com/14766-satellite-refueling-project-darpa-bid.html

http://www.indiandefence.com/forums...tellite-refueling-orbit-coming-soon.html

This is the old one they have revealed.
They now have micro drones.
Small enough to fly right into your skull without you knowing it!

I read both articles in the link from djs. Neither tells the full story.

The DARPA project is aimed only at satellites in geosynchronous orbit. They are all in the same orbital plane and at the same altitude. It would be relatively easy to maneuver between them for refueling or other service. But for satellites in any other orbit, the course and altitude obstacles are too great to overcome for more than one satellite per refueling launch.

The article from Indian Defense confuses several of these things. Satellites that run out of fuel and eventually re-enter the atmosphere are in low orbit. Geosync birds will NEVER decay and re-enter. When they are near death, they are boosted (with their last bits of fuel) into permanent "grave" orbits to make room for other geosynch craft.

The Blackbird earned its spurs during the Cold War, when we were scared spitless of the Soviet's ICBMs. So scared that elementary schools were teaching the kids duck and cover drills. In that climate of fear, we were willing to endure the political consequences of wantonly violating a sovereign nation's airspace.

But they were incredibly expensive to build, operate and maintain. Their lone saving grace was they flew so fast and so high they could penetrate heavily-defended denied airspace with impunity, which had been the U-2's stock in trade before the Powers incident. Using them for missions that didn't require that unique capability would be like using a top fuel dragster for a grocery-getter. The driver might have a gay ol' time but the neighbors aren't going to appreciate all the commotion, and it's going to make that gallon of milk awfully spendy.

Agree Rocky, neither tells the whole story. But, the X-37 is highly classified as is it's mission. All I'm trying to say is that there is a need to refuel (and perhaps return disabled) satellites and the X-37 is one possible platform.

The Russians have demonstrated the concept of resupplying space vehicles autonomously and we just might be taking a hint.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to build a fast, high altitude stealth UAV and have it in-theater in a matter of minutes from a secure base? We can (and probably do) do that now.

How high is sovereign air space anyway? Wouldn't sats be tresspassing too?

Sovereign air space is ultimately dependent on the countries ability to shoot down the offending craft.

My youngest son retired a couple years ago after 22yrs with the U2. He is with Northrup now. Don't sell the U2 short. Yes, we will have something better one of these days that we will learn about.

Wiki to the rescue. "There is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace..." Wiki

So it really comes down to, IF you can detect our stuff, what are you gonna do about it and why should we care? If China it matters, if Iran not so much.

During Desert Storm there was a "national command asset" over Baghdad that was only communicating with the F-117's. What was that? AvWeek had a large article on the "Aurora" rummint a while back. Some credible (pilot observers) reports of craft going horizon to horizon at very high altitudes in very short periods of time with cigar shaped exhaust pulses left behind (pulse jet propulsion?)
There is stuff we don't know about, which, is the way it should be........

A "national command asset" can be a satellite. Likely it referred to a distinct channel of a geosync bird. When I was flying super-secret missions over Cambodia, I had a "national command asset" overhead also. It was a C-130 chock full of commo gear and high-ranking dudes. Things change - and things don't.

Are there test vehicles doing previously unheard-of things? Very likely. Are they fully operational? Very UNlikely.

Well, I was airborne pretty much every night of desert storm and up on purplenet the whole time and there were numerous things out there called "national command assets". Given the 117 carried nothing comms-wise more exotic at the time than standard UHF radios I have a pretty good clue on what it was and it was things we already know about.

ADCCC?

Should you have an SR-71 and like to do the work yourself you're all set now!

http://www.amazon.com/Lockheed-SR-7...32&sr=8-1&keywords=9780857331564

It would appear that after several stuttersteps, they've finally put Misty-3 into orbit.

Shortly after the "classified" launch of NROL-15/USA-237 in late June, speculation held it wasn't any sort of ISR system because its payload appeared to go into geosync orbit. Except the details didn't add up ...unless whatever's in geosync happens to be a stalking horse, and the real platform was launched from it later so its trajectory would be less observable/unobservable. This would not be without precedent because Misty-2 (NROL-9/USA-144) also is believed to have been deployed in conjunction with a decoy.

So the usual suspects (Jane's Defence, Aviation Leak & ST, etc) are quoting subject matter experts saying this likely was Misty-3. And because of the configuration of the launch platform (a Delta-4 heavy), they're speculating this one is a beast, with enough fuel to remain on station and with maneuver capabilities for a long, long time. Which would make sense, considering how long it's taken to get this one funded, built and hung.

If their suspicions are correct, for the timebeing the deception looks to have been successful because Heavens Above is tracking USA-237 but whatever might have been springboarded from it appears as yet undetected.