Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: nicholas@nevada.edu (Nick Holmberg)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: New USAF Spy plane?
Message-ID: <1990Jun5.180322.21988@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 5 Jun 90 18:03:22 GMT
References: <1990May29.145207.21418@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Nevada, System Computing Services
Lines: 31
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: nicholas@nevada.edu (Nick Holmberg)

In article <1990May29.145207.21418@cbnews.att.com> tmarshall01@cc.cut.oz.au writes:
>I was wondering if someone could tell me what SR stands for
>(as in SR-71. )
  The SR-71 was originally named the RS-71, but good 'ole Lyndon Baines
Johnson juxtaposed Reconnaissance Strike in Strike Recon.  Since that didn't
make sense and because of some political manuevering, SR was changed to mean
Strategic Recon.

>	Also , if the SR-71 has been put out of service, what
>aircraft is replacing it. The F-117? I don't think so. Does
>this mean the U.S. has a new Secret Spy plane, or do they feel
>it is unnesecary to have one.(I don't think so).
  I believe that the US Armed forces intend to use satellite cameras, such
as those on the KH-11s and Big Birds.  But I think that is pretty stupid since
you can get a SR-71 anywhere really quick and there will not always be a
satellite in position to take a picture.  Also there is no known way to
jam photographic negatives once the picture is taken.
  As for using the Stealth, it does not have the range for long recon, but
it could be used for battlefield recon, but that I doubt.  With such a
high price tag and Congress baulking about that same price tag, no Commander
would be stupid enuf to use it in that role (no, these planes are reserved
for bombing Panamiam barracks - Just kidding.  It was a good use of 'em.)
Almost any plane can be used for battlefield recon, and several NATO planes
have specilized variants to do this (Vig and Tornado, I believe).  For
thetimate in battlefield recon, the TR-1, a U-2 descendant, is used.  This
baby orbits at 60k and behind the Forward Line of Battle.  It can survey
an entire battlefield, maybe more, but raw data esca