dioditto said:
The pilots' lives, and the risk of SR-71 ever been shot down is not really the issue.. U2 has been shot down numerous times and it never amount to much political fallout.
my comments had nothing to do with decisions based on pilots lives. Pilots lives were part of the decision matrix - but they weren't the empirical reason. Ferret missions over hot space using manned aircraft were pulled because of risk mitigation issues.
dioditto said:
I think withdrawing the SR-71 from service was not just the risk factor alone. The real factor I consider is the fact that SR-71/U2 and variuos spy plane have accelerated, made the russian/USSR SAM and long range detection technology formidable to the point that, it's detrimental to "prod" them along any further.
You seem to forget mathius rus. a lot of the mythology about the russian SAM capability turned out to be just that - mythology. They were over rated by some margin.
dioditto said:
Since no other fighter or bomber have the capability to fly as fast as SR-71 currently, (although one is planned recently), to prod the russian along that direction and develop a far more sophiscated defense capability than american's simply makes no sense, thus the withdrawl.
no, thats incorrect. the issue was a requirements decision based on risk and reward using manned aircraft for missions that could be better achieved by satellites with a lower resolution. The need for manned reccon is even further diminished with current technology. The "spin" generated about a manned replacement is just that - "spin". A cursory look at technology jumps in the last 3 years alone reinforces that.
dioditto said:
Note: And currently, Russian SAM technology is A GENERATION AHEAD of american.
where? in some areas they have an untested capability - but as the Kh-31/Mh-31 exercise showed under Clinton, the technology being used was sometimes pretty sad. Russian air to air missiles on russian aircraft have had a somewhat ordinary track record. (and this included using ukrainian "contracted" pilots in africa)
all the editorial comments about Bulavas undertaking the aerial equiv of a "crazy ivan" to avoid interception systems is about as concrete as claims about their 5th Gen aircraft. (which as of 2 days ago had their funding cut even further.) I'd predict that the Chinese will actually overtake the Russians in a number of technology paths within 5-7 years.
