Message posted by Smythers (Member since 04/27/2023) on August 10, 2023 at 13:20:44 PST:
For permissive environments. Those days are done. The next Pacific war is going to be fought on belt buckles by the grunts, and by VLO assets in the skies. Nothing - absolutely nothing else will survive for longer than a couple of hours. Not tankers, not U-2 up high, not RQ-4, nothing. China is going to turn on all the bells and whistles that we only see when they are really pissed at over flights, and the transports, the surveillance and the tankers are going to be dodging ultra-long ranged SAM.
For a permissive environment (Which the last 23 years of warfare have been), the U2 has been without peer. She continues to be without peer.
Which is why we needed a 45 hours loiter beast and the B-21. What can be seen, can be hit. What cannot be seen, cannot be hit.
The U2 will continue to be relevant for day 2 or whenever the threat level is low (Peacetime probing for sure), but its days of de facto Queen of the Skies are done.
In Reply to: Re: U-2 retirement posted by Casper on August 10, 2023 at 12:48:47 PST:
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