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The reconnaissance jet was never shot down, or even hit, over the course of its entire lifespan, although it’s been estimated that more than 4,000 missiles were fired at it over the decades.
Stealth doesn’t just apply to aircraft—submarines have been incorporating stealthy features for decades. And the most powerful combination of lethality and stealth is almost certainly the Ohio-class.
The vulnerability of the subsonic U-2 spy plane spurred the SR-71’s development, CNN explained. “In May 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace while taking aerial photographs. Initially, the U.S. government said it was a stray weather research aircraft, but the story fell apart once the Soviet government released photos of the captured pilot and the plane's surveillance equipment,” The incident had immediate diplomatic repercussions for the Cold War and reinforced the need for a new type of reconnaissance plane that could fly faster and higher, safe from anti-a...
SR-72: The Mach 6 Bomber That Could Shake the World? Not quite, but the much-hyped hypersonic aircraft has been likened to an SR-72 and it has some serious capabilities. Here's What You Need To Remember: Lockheed’s hyping of a hypersonic aircraft which may-or-may-not already exist seems explicitly intended to build support for additional funding. This may be because it’s pursuing the project with the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA), which focuses on innovative development of cutting-edge technologies often well ahead of capabilities in operational service, rather than ...
While this isn't exactly a secret, what is unclear is whether the Son of the Blackbird, as the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been dubbed, was ever more than vaporware.