Reactivation From the operators perspective, what I need is - TopicsExpress

Reactivation From the operators perspective, what I need is something that will not give me just a spot in time but will give me a track of what is happening. When we are trying to find out if the Serbs are taking arms, moving tanks or artillery into Bosnia, we can get a picture of them stacked up on the Serbian side of the bridge. We do not know whether they then went on to move across that bridge. We need the [data] that a tactical, an SR-71, a U-2, or an unmanned vehicle of some sort, will give us, in addition to, not in replacement of, the ability of the satellites to go around and check not only that spot but a lot of other spots around the world for us. It is the integration of strategic and tactical. Response from Admiral Richard C. Macke to the Senate Committee on Armed Services. Due to unease over political situations in the Middle East and North Korea, the U.S. Congress re-examined the SR-71 beginning in 1993. Rear Admiral Thomas F. Hall addressed the question of why the SR-71 was retired, saying it was under the belief that, given the time delay associated with mounting a mission, conducting a reconnaissance, retrieving the data, processing it, and getting it out to a field commander, that you had a problem in timelines that was not going to meet the tactical requirements on the modern battlefield. And the determination was that if one could take advantage of technology and develop a system that could get that data back real time... that would be able to meet the unique requirements of the tactical commander. Hall stated they were looking at alternative means of doing [the job of the SR-71]. Macke told the committee that they were flying U-2s, RC-135s, [and] other strategic and tactical assets to collect information in some areas. Senator Robert Byrd and other Senators complained that the better than successor to the SR-71 had yet to be developed at the cost of the good enough serviceable aircraft. They maintained that, in a time of constrained military budgets, designing, building, and testing an aircraft with the same capabilities as the SR-71 would be impossible. Congress disappointment with the lack of a suitable replacement for the Blackbird was cited concerning whether to continue funding imaging sensors on the U-2. Congressional conferees stated the experience with the SR-71 serves as a reminder of the pitfalls of failing to keep existing systems up-to-date and capable in the hope of acquiring other capabilities. It was agreed to add $100 million to the budget to return three SR-71s to service, but it was emphasized that this would not prejudice support for long-endurance UAVs [such as the Global Hawk]. The funding was later cut to $72.5 million. The Skunk Works was able to return the aircraft to service under budget at $72 million. Colonel Jay Murphy (USAF Retired) was made the Program Manager for Lockheeds reactivation plans. Retired Air Force Colonels Don Emmons and Barry MacKean were put under government contract to remake the planes logistic and support structure. Still-active Air Force pilots and Reconnaissance Systems Officers (RSOs) who had worked with the aircraft were asked to volunteer to fly the reactivated planes. The aircraft was under the command and control of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base and flew out of a renovated hangar at Edwards Air Force Base. Modifications were made to provide a data-link with near real-time transmission of the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radars imagery to sites on the ground. Final retirement The reactivation met much resistance: the Air Force had not budgeted for the aircraft, and UAV developers worried that their programs would suffer if money was shifted to support the SR-71s. Also, with the allocation requiring yearly reaffirmation by Congress, long-term planning for the SR-71 was difficult. In 1996, the Air Force claimed that specific funding had not been authorized, and moved to ground the program. Congress reauthorized the funds, but, in October 1997, President Bill Clinton attempted to use the line-item veto to cancel the $39 million allocated for the SR-71. In June 1998, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the line-item veto was unconstitutional. All this left the SR-71s status uncertain until September 1998, when the Air Force called for the funds to be redistributed; the Air Force permanently retired it in 1998. NASA operated the two last airworthy Blackbirds until 1999. All other Blackbirds have been moved to museums except for the two SR-71s and a few D-21 drones retained by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Timeline 24 December 1957: First J58 engine run. 1 May 1960: Francis Gary Powers is shot down in a Lockheed U-2 over the Soviet Union. 13 June 1962: SR-71 mock-up reviewed by Air Force. 30 July 1962: J58 completes pre-flight testing. 28 December 1962: Lockheed signs contract to build six SR-71 aircraft. 25 July 1964: President Johnson makes public announcement of SR-71. 29 October 1964: SR-71 prototype (AF Ser. No. 61-7950) delivered to Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, California. 7 December 1964: Beale AFB, CA, announced as base for SR-71. 22 December 1964: First flight of the SR-71 with Lockheed test pilot Bob Gilliland at Air Force Plant #42. 21 July 1967: Jim Watkins and Dave Dempster fly first international sortie in SR-71A, AF Ser. No. 61-7972, when the Astro-Inertial Navigation System (ANS) fails on a training mission and they accidentally fly into Mexican airspace. 3 November 1967: A-12 and SR-71 conduct a reconnaissance fly-off. Results are questionable.[clarification needed][citation needed] 5 February 1968: Lockheed ordered to destroy A-12, YF-12, and SR-71 tooling. 8 March 1968: First SR-71A (AF Ser. No. 61-7978) arrives at Kadena AB, Okinawa to replace A-12s. 21 March 1968: First SR-71 (AF Ser. No. 61-7976) operational mission flown from Kadena AB over Vietnam. 29 May 1968: CMSgt Bill Gornik begins the tie-cutting tradition of Habu crews neckties. 3 December 1975: First flight of SR-71A (AF Ser. No. 61-7959) in Big Tail configuration. 20 April 1976: TDY operations started at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom with SR-71A, AF Ser. No. 61-7972. 27–28 July 1976: SR-71A sets speed and altitude records (Altitude in Horizontal Flight: 85,068.997 ft (25,929.030 m) and Speed Over a Straight Course: 2,193.167 miles per hour (3,529.560 km/h)). August 1980: Honeywell starts conversion of AFICS to DAFICS. 15 January 1982: SR-71B, AF Ser. No. 61-7956, flies its 1,000th sortie. 21 April 1989: SR-71, AF Ser. No. 61-7974, is lost due to an engine explosion after taking off from Kadena AB, the last Blackbird to be lost.[3][4] 22 November 1989: Air Force SR-71 program officially terminated. 6 March 1990: Last SR-71 flight under SENIOR CROWN program, setting four speed records en route to Smithsonian Institution. 25 July 1991: SR-71B, AF Ser. No. 61-7956/NASA #831 officially delivered to NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California. October 1991: NASA engineer Marta Bohn-Meyer becomes the first female SR-71 crew member. 28 September 1994: Congress votes to allocate $100 million for reactivation of three SR-71s. 28 June 1995: First reactivated SR-71 returns to Air Force as Detachment 2. 9 October 1999: The last flight of the SR-71 (AF Ser. No. 61-7980/NASA 844). r/max