Is A Mach 5 SR-72 Spy Plane Flying In The Sky?

Jack O’Banion posted this image of a digital 'twin' of the craft, saying 'Without the digital transformation, the aircraft you see there could not have been made.'

Caleb Larson, National Interest: Could a Mach 5 SR-72 Spy Plane Already Be in the Sky?

If anything about the SR-71 program can be gleaned, it is that the existence of the SR-72 will likely be unacknowledged for some time after it is operational. For all we know, the SR-72 could already be in the air.

In the late 1990s, the SR-71 Blackbird — the world’s fastest, highest-flying plane ever — was retired. Perhaps preemptively.

Slow Satellites

Although satellite reconnaissance has largely overtaken the role of spy planes, they are not always a perfect solution, particularly when intelligence information is needed very quickly. Satellites can take up to 24 hours to get into the correct place in their orbit, which is considerably slower than the SR-71 Blackbird, which can make LA to D.C. in just over an hour.

The other drawback to satellites is their potentially vulnerable to attack. Since they travel in relatively predictable orbits, countries hostile to a satellite can potentially track their flight path and bring them down in the event of war with the manufacturing country — a crucial vulnerability.

While Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have been used extensively for reconnaissance, they are not necessarily very fast, and unless effectively stealthy, they are very vulnerable to attack.

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WNU Editor: Speculations of a successor to the SR-71 have been around for a long time .... Skunkworks Boss Hints Unmanned SR-72 Bomber Prototype Has 'Already Been Made' (January 11, 2018).