4 ms·
If it can be shot down, I think that it's probably safe to assume that it won't be able to see anything particularly interesting. I'd expect something like Groo
by saulrh 9y ago
If it can be shot down, I think that it's probably safe to assume that it won't be able to see anything particularly interesting. I'd expect something like Groom Lake to be surrounded by an impenetrable wall of interceptors and SAM sites.
Though I suppose that you could try to make your drones so cheap and in such volume that shooting them down becomes logistically and economically infeasible, but that's another strategy entirely.
- mabbo 9y ago> I'd expect something like Groom Lake to be surrounded by an impenetrable wall of interceptors and SAM sites The whole idea of the SR-71 was that it went so fast that SAMs could just barely not catch up to it before they ran out of fuel. Any other plane couldn't outrun them, but the Blackbird? Well, Mach 3.4 will give you some breathing room.
- astdb 9y agoThe standard evasion tactic for SR-71 upon launched against was to simply accelerate.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Already__Taken 9y agoThat would be the only option. It's not like you can turn much you'd pass out or snap the airframe. I imagine thought a little snake left/right might compromise getting the images that was the point of the mission.
- cryptonector 9y agoApparently it could also turn pretty hard. Mind, it's turn radius was huge, but at mach 3.2 it still meant pulling a lot of g's.
- pdelbarba 9y agoMore to the point, it takes time to notice, track, lock and (in some cases) get approval to fire. That gives you seconds to minutes to not only fire but for the missile to reach the intercept point. Missiles and radar tend to operate in a "bubble". Even with the Russian S200 system at 190 miles range, the time you spend in that "bubble" when you're at 70k ft is not often long enough to do anything. That also assumes the aircraft directly overflies the battery. You can play games like pointing the camera sideways and observing from an angle if you know there are going to be angry people with guns nearby.
- burfog 9y agoMach 3.4 was also fast enough that early radar systems couldn't track it. The plane would move far enough between radar pulses that it got filtered out as noise.
- mikeash 9y agoThe state of the art advances. There are SAMs today that can shoot down ICBMs. I would guess that one reason the SR-71 was retired, besides the official line that it was expensive and made obsolete by satellites, is that it was no longer invulnerable as it had been when it was new.