Has Lockheed Martin finished building the unmanned SR-72

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works unit may have already finished making the radical hypersonic update of the long-retired Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

Jack O’Banion, Vice President of Strategy and Customer Requirements, Advanced Development Programs for Lockheed Martin, let slip at a conference the unmanned aircraft has already been made.

Speaking at The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech Forum, he showed a slide of a digital mockup of the craft, and said 'Without the digital transformation, the aircraft you see there could not have been made.'

'In fact, five years ago, it could not have been made.'

O’Banion also said the aircraft will have a 'digital twin' that knows every part on the aircraft.

'Talking about speed, you're talking about hypersoncs, aircraft that operate above mach 5,' he added.

According to Aviation Week late last year, a technology demonstrator, believed to be an unmanned subscale aircraft, was observed flying into the U.S. Air Force's Plant 42 at Palmdale, where Skunk Works is headquartered, in July.

The SR-72 hypersonic plane will be a strike and reconnaissance aircraft that tops Mach 6, and the firm has been working on the project since the early 2000s.

Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne have been working together since 2006 on work to integrate an off-the-shelf turbine with a scramjet to power an aircraft with a combined cycle propulsion system from standstill to Mach 6


vid in this link
https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/lockheed-martin-may-be-closer-to-completing-the-hyperso-1821894586

 

[jboydgolfer]

the HTV-2 was an impressively fast Mach 15-20 , dual stage is impressive.

I've actually heard some odd sonic boom's, followed by "unusual" sounds over the past several months. I can't say what the reason is, but we do have several AFB and ARB bases in the area. i spoke with a friend who does some USAF turbine engine contract work, & he had mentioned this , but only from the turbine aspect, since thats what is manufactured where he is employed. Cool as hell though. I wonder if like in the past, Lockhead does the aircraft , and P&W does the engine, like with the F-35

 

[bonehead123]

To answer the OP's question:

There are 33 of them, they can travel at Warp 3 not Mach 3, and the best part:

They are circling at 666 miles above your house right now, just waiting for you to get home, so they can either vaporize you off the planet, or perhaps beam you up for further examination...

How do I know this you may ask?

Because I am the one who is controlling them, hahahaha

 

[droopyRO]

A new high speed chem trail dispenser ? j/k

 

[Sasqui]

Reminds me of this :>

 

[StrayKAT]

To this day, the SR-71 is the most kickass plane in existence to me (well, equal to the A-10).

I'm not exactly sure why a bomber needs be that damn fast though.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Outrun the missiles. It's practically untouchable.

 

[Bones]

To this day, the SR-71 is the most kickass plane in existence to me (well, equal to the A-10).

I'm not exactly sure why a bomber needs be that damn fast though.

Simple - In and out before you know it..... And to outrun the missiles that follow.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Simple

Nothing about what human beings will do to avoid being watched when they don't want to be watched is "simple ", same goes for when they dont want to be bombed. if a intercepting aircraft were to chase this craft, at mach speeds, and launch a missile, that missile would be moving fast AF, better safe than smokey

The DPRk wont be happy with a couple of these flying over kim dong dings palace

 

[Xzibit]

 

[Bones]

Nothing about what human beings will do to avoid being watched when they don't want to be watched is "simple ", same goes for when they dont want to be bombed.

The DPRk wont be happy with a couple of these flying over kim dong dings palace

I know what you're getting at and yes, they are always watching.
It's when the deal goes down is when it matters, even if you know it's coming there are ways to befuddle or confuse the watcher until it's too late.

 

[_JP_]

Outrun the missiles. It's practically untouchable.

Good luck outrunning lasers, though.

 

[Vya Domus]

Outrun the missiles. It's practically untouchable.

Well most of the time. Just because it is capable of outrunning missiles doesn't necessarily mean it can't be hit by them. Or that there aren't any other methods of taking it down.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

China appears to be in the lead with hypersonic weapons technology, at least as far as a battlefield-ready implementation is concerned. In November, the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force conducted the first flight tests of a new missile known as the DF-17.

The DF-17 is the first missile system anywhere that uses a hypersonic glide vehicle as its payload and is intended for operational deployment. While the United States and Russia have both conducted developmental tests, neither country is known to have taken concrete steps towards deploying these systems.

U.S. intelligence is expecting the DF-17 to enter service around 2020

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/intr...armed-with-a-hypersonic-glide-vehicle.535791/

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

Does this machine spreads "freedom" at will?!

 

[bonehead123]

Good luck outrunning lasers, though.

Yes but Lasers are straight line of fire weapons, so avoiding being detected and identified as a target is the key, which is much more likely when the aircraft traveling at mach3+ at 80,000 ft+ altitude

 

[Tatty_Two]

Good luck outrunning lasers, though.

You can still get them with missiles too if the target is coming towards you, you then just need to improve your detection systems and intercept, far cheaper than trying to develop a missile that travels so much faster.

 

[jboydgolfer]

keep in mind that if a faster ship can outrun a a slower (intercepting) ship by 1000mph, and the chasing ship has missiles/rockets/mainguns that fire at anything up to or Above that speed advantage, the faster ship is in significant danger, since the projectiles speed + the aircrafts speed= what the projectile will in essence be traveling to a body that is separate from them (until the atmosphere begins to slow it down a bit).

if you were on the front of a train, that was traveling 1000MPH, and you fired a gun that shot a projectile at 1000MPH, that projectile would be traveling 2000MPH from any give standing body's point of reference.

building a weapon ,or device to outperform significantly is never a bad idea when in military terms. Ask japan WWII , the massive advantage the US had over them in air deployed explosives ( little boy) made quick work of any question to weather or not the US needed to invade japanese soil, or resolve the matter in one (or a few ) bomb strikes. superiority is a great thing, especially when that superiority if often mostly used as a deterrent. M.A.D functions based off of these perceived superiorities, or likeliness of mutual destruction based on the massively overpowered weapons.

overkill works well to itimidate too, imagine what germany saw.... on June 6, 1944 . frankly, if it wasnt for the fact that Rommel was a amazingly formidable, and genius military minded field marshal, it would have been much worse for the Germans that day.

 

[_JP_]

Yes but Lasers are straight line of fire weapons, so avoiding being detected and identified as a target is the key, which is much more likely when the aircraft traveling at mach3+ at 80,000 ft+ altitude

You can still get them with missiles too if the target is coming towards you, you then just need to improve your detection systems and intercept, far cheaper than trying to develop a missile that travels so much faster.

If missiles fail, we need an augmented 88 flak just spam the air

 

[Tatty_Two]

keep in mind that if a faster ship can outrun a a slower (intercepting) ship by 1000mph, and the chasing ship has missiles/rockets/mainguns that fire at anything up to or Above that speed advantage, the faster ship is in significant danger, since the projectiles speed + the aircrafts speed= what the projectile will in essence be traveling to a body that is separate from them (until the atmosphere begins to slow it down a bit).

if you were on the front of a train, that was traveling 1000MPH, and you fired a gun that shot a projectile at 1000MPH, that projectile would be traveling 2000MPH from any give standing body's point of reference.

building a weapon ,or device to outperform significantly is never a bad idea when in military terms. Ask japan WWII , the massive advantage the US had over them in air deployed explosives ( little boy) made quick work of any question to weather or not the US needed to invade japanese soil, or resolve the matter in one (or a few ) bomb strikes. superiority is a great thing, especially when that superiority if often mostly used as a deterrent. M.A.D functions based off of these perceived superiorities, or likeliness of mutual destruction based on the massively overpowered weapons.

overkill works well to itimidate too, imagine what germany saw.... on June 6, 1944 . frankly, if it wasnt for the fact that Rommel was a amazingly formidable, and genius military minded field marshal, it would have been much worse for the Germans that day.

But surely, given your example, if the enemy was travelling at 3000mph, you were travelling at 1600mph, your missile travels at 1600mph you would be right, at the point of firing the missile would travel at 3200mph but immediately upon firing it would slow, eventually to 1600mph so unless the enemy was very close your missile is never going to reach him in any case, and he will never be close simply because he is travelling almost twice your speed.

 

[jaggerwild]

Northrop Grumman has the first unmanned to land on a carrier X-47B

 

[jboydgolfer]

But surely, given your example, if the enemy was travelling at 3000mph, you were travelling at 1600mph, your missile travels at 1600mph you would be right, at the point of firing the missile would travel at 3200mph but immediately upon firing it would slow, eventually to 1600mph so unless the enemy was very close your missile is never going to reach him in any case, and he will never be close simply because he is travelling almost twice your speed.

Missiles or rockets are propelled continuously until impact in some cases. At least the FFAR, or even FAF . unlike in movies don't chase down their targets, What you generally will have is upon firing of the rocket ,a massive boost of speed (which is generally twice the speed of the craft it's being fired at + the speed of the craft its fired from). Some ("smart weapons") will use the climb tactic ,where the missile will climb to a very high altitude until the rocket fuel is expended, At which point it will use that stored altitude to acquire it's target by dropping at that acquired speed, while using gravity. The same can be said for a continually propelled rocket device. It's going to be propelled to the point of impact, which means it's going to maintain the majority of its speed until impact. Its not a matter of , once the projectile is fired, the speed advantage from being fired from a fast moving body is lost. This is why, when a missile or rocket it "locked on", you wont try to outrun it in most cases, but instead, a Sharp G turn will be implemented (or a combination of turns and Chaff), hoping for the rocket to miss its target. keep in mind, that a Jet, or aircraft, is a powerful engine, but it has a Ton of weight. A missile on the other hand, is a Ton of Rocket, or Jet booster, with a smaller payload (just enough to impair an aircraft) and some guidance, and other structural weight, but still it has a VERY high Boost/weight ratio, which a traditional jet aircraft has Zero hope of matching. Take the AASRAM *commonly referred to as a heatseeker* (the F-35 uses them along with MANY other jet fighter ships) It will travel at speeds Above 2300MPH (aka Mach3+) to intercept its target, it flies up to a rating of 50KM (31 miles), and it keeps its speed, until target impact, or malfunction, or fuel exhaustion.

in short, the only factors in the "fired from a moving target" (in respect to it slowing down pre impact) question are, atmosphere, and gravity. the combination of those two are what is slowing down the projectile, the only way for that missile or bullet to lose that speed "boost" , is for the observer to be moving at an equal speed, but from the ground, its advantage continues after firing, AFAIK minus any Schrödinger's cat type parallel physics craziness, or BS that is escaping me

i Could be very wrong, but i think this exact situation in an important factor to the success of the GAU-8 (the main gun used by the airship commonly known as the tank buster, warthog, or A-10) at destroying armor plated Tanks so well. Speaking only from the kinetic, AP style round OFC, i would think that is why they use the depleted Uranium style round , with its ability to withstand the impact of a hardened "impact proof" tanks shell. I know A-10's travel relatively Slow during a strafing run, but it has to help the situation to have that added kinetic energy when hitting a tank.

incidentally, GOD i love the sound of that GAU when it fires........ i like the secondary sound wave the most. you can see the exact point of fire in the video, where that little white cloud line is, it just takes a second or two for the sound to hit the cam.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Still not convinced there is anything that can catch a plane accelerating away from you at a distance moving at warp 3 though

 

[jboydgolfer]

Still not convinced there is anything that can catch a plane accelerating away from you at a distance moving at warp 3 though

oh, i wasn't saying it could catch this new SR-72. I wasn't saying that at all, just speaking about the speed of the projectile fired from a moving target. its one of those "scratch your head" subjects, or at least for me it is

as a matter of fact, just in case anyone was also interested, here is a video clip, wit hexactly what we were speaking about. you can invision more easily in the video, what happens, as the missile is released from the crafts speed, then engages its own engines to add its own speed to that initial speed, then KABOOM!!!

Spoiler: video for anyone curious

 

[Tatty_Two]

Do they really go at Warp 3 though? I googled that and it is faster than the speed of light, unless one of them is called the USS Enterprise I would have my doubts Mach 3 is 2250 mph or 1km per second.