Fs in the chat
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/u-2-retirement-moves-forward-with-defense-secretary-decision
THE U2 IS BEING RETIRED
Fs in the chat
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/u-2-retirement-moves-forward-with-defense-secretary-decision
F
I never liked any of their songs
Even Bono has said he dislikes much of the songs they've made
Joshua Tree was a good album, don't know about the rest of their stuff.
It's a Beautiful Daaaaaaaaaay.
Doesn't surprise me, there's probably already a follow on to the RQ-180 flying anyway.
I bet they are going to announce a new recon platform any day now. There has been some chatter about such an announcement on the OSINT accts.
The sr-72 got it's soft leak last week. Not the usual schizo posting about it either.
I demand you elaborate sir
>soft leak
They threw it in an honest to gods hollywood film for shits and giggles and nobody was any the wiser.
That wasn't real.
He's talking about the Dark Star from Top Gun Maverick.
Its been a published program in the budget since at least 2018.
I'm actually surprised it wasn't retired decades ago. I guess it was still useful in shithole countries.
This. I thought it was replaced by the SR-71 which was in turn replaced by satellites.
They probably didn't want to retire it entirely in favor of satellites just in case Russia, China, or Iran decided to kick off Kessler syndrome.
Sr-71 is kinda shit in comparison because it's time "on station" (really dozens of miles away with a fuckoff huge camera) is too small. U-2 could looter much longer. Blackbird made sense when you could haul ass and peak before anything could be moved. U-2 makes more sense when there's not really any air defenses to challenge it / you're in friendly or incompetent air anyway.
Threat profile is way different now days.
Seems like the RQ-4 is a good fit for replacing the U2.
Especially since you can swap the crew midflight.
Not that i really know what shit they do besides being glorfied air breathing satalites.
The RQ-4 was introduced over 20 years ago, can't imagine why they'd wait till now if that was the replacement. Nah there's something new.
The RQ-4s are already planned for decommissioning. I'm sure they already have a replacement active.
>replaced by satellites
maybe there are still some spots without satellite coverage
This may have something to do with that new satellite program that images stuff but runs on really cheap satellite busses. Maybe they were going to retire the U-2 fleet in a few years anyway but seeing the new satellite fleet come up convinced them to move it forward?
maybe at the poles but Starlink has pretty good coverage at this point. I'm sure there's some way to turn them into sats useful for the U2s role
>they don't know about polar orbits
ngmi
Making a satellite orbit between the poles is impossible, since it requires too much fuel to launch rockets in directions other than to the east. Look up the rocket equation.
Lmao. What is a molnia or sun synchronous orbit? Also, Isreal launches all of their shit to the west
I am convinced you are legally retarded
earths rotation only adds a max delta-v of 440ms^-1 at the equator and diminishes with increasing latitude. A LEO orbit just outside the karman limit requires a total delta-v of 7,840ms^-1
should have been retired 50 years ago. stupid bicycle landing gear plane
>Trevithick
No.
Guess the DoD still hasn't found what they are looking for.
CARLOS!
Beat me to it
vertigo
Rest in pieces dragonlady
Hopefully k buys it as surplus
F
I bet you not a single part on that plane was original
>Theseus' aircraft
Good, go away diet space shuttle.
I'm surprised such a horrible recon platform survived so long. I mean look at its landing gear, it's propensity for scrambling pilot eggs, the fact it's a manned recon system in an age of satellites. I genuinely want to know, what made it so worthwhile to keep? Why was the SR-71 retired before it despite it seemingly doing the U2s job way better? Still, farewell dragonlady
>the fact it's a manned recon system in an age of satellites
Even more we have unmanned drones that do the same thing without wasting manpower kek
Nothing has the same capability as the U2. The best drone can only reach 33,000 feet. The U2 can reach 70,000 feet, by comparison.
I wonder if they might modify the current U2 fleet to be unmanned. I mean I wouldn't be surprised if all the planes are just so old they need to be retired but if they're still working it seems like a good use for the airframes
There's no way they're trusting a computer to land a U2. The landing process requires trucks driving under the wings to stop the plane from rolling too much.
It does fucking what now?
>he doesn't know
I thought the U2s incredibly unsafe method of landing was the second most famous part of the plane after that one time one was shot down
?si=ufToWH5RASHSpdUd
With the weight saved by removing the meatbags and their life support systems, they could integrate a little more stable landing gear
>MQ-4C Triton can operate at 50,000 feet
>Testing had a max ceiling of 59,000 feet
These things take off, fly, land and taxi themselves.
the global hawk version can get to 60k iirc
iirc doesn't NASA have a few airframes that they use for high altitude radio astronomy or something?
You fucking warzone shill fuck off with your advertisement thread
About fucking time. It should have been retired 40 years ago.
oi mates, they already have a replacement running since a decade.
like when they admitted the existence of the u2 or the sr71 was like 20 years after they aired it.
remember, new super weapon show shit is russia/china tier. actually a cgi tiger.
us / nato is like no no we have nothing new right now but we retire that 60s bird anyways
while ufos are being sighted over the us more than ever like that triangular thingy.
u get me?