Often confused with a fictional aircraft featured in Top Gun: Maverick, which goes by the name Darkstar, the SR-72 hasn’t been given a codename. According to Interesting Engineering, the aircraft design is sometimes referenced as the Son of Blackbird, which throws down a challenging gauntlet for the designers at the famed Lockheed Martin Skunk Works engineering team.
The aircraft that the SR-72 succeeds, the SR-71, is a universal icon of aerospace engineering. The SR-71 was the fastest manned aircraft ever built, a title that has yet to be beaten despite its first flight 60 years ago. The aircraft was such a powerful tool that the United States Air Force couldn’t commit to its retirement, removing the type from service in 1989, only to reactivate the aircraft and continue flying it until 1998.
Photo: Keith Tarrier | Shutterstock
With a lot of eager speculation about what is promised to be a highly capable aircraft, there is undoubtedly a lot of excitement. Before even being tested, the aircraft is already a movie star, after all. However, with any true Skunk Works program, the development of the SR-72 is largely secret, but here is what we know so far:
The program has been in work since 2013
- Role in force: Hypersonic strategic reconnaissance UAV
- Current status: design proposal
While it may have benefited from informing the public about the SR-72 to gain support for the program, it's unclear why Lockheed Martin and Skunk Works violated their own norms. Still, the secretive design team unveiled their successor plan to the press in 2013.
At that time, some rumors of the development had existed since 2006. Still, in 2013, the development of a demonstrator was planned as soon as 2018, a demonstrator for what was to become a Mach 6 cruise capable of affordable hypersonic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and strike program.
The first flight of the demonstrator was originally scheduled for 2023. However, it is unclear if that aircraft ever took flight. The United States Air Force, for its part, has already said it has tested potential future generations of combat aircraft planned for introduction in 2030. While these future aircraft types are a part of the NGAD program, a program intended to produce a sixth-generation aircraft type to replace the F-22 with strike capability, it is unclear if the SR-72 demonstrator was a part of that program.
In 2013, the program’s plans were for an aircraft that was going to be twice as fast as the SR-71 that came before it. The mention of “affordability” was quite the advertisement at the time. The SR-71 was retired in part due to defense cuts and the aircraft’s exorbitant cost to operate, reaching as much as $200,000 an hour to operate in the 1980s.
The other headline of the 2013 revelations told us the aircraft would be able to perform strike missions. While the SR-71 was known to take pictures, not being able to operate with the weight of weapons and their targeting equipment, the SR-72 would have the capability to attack targets.
Photo: NASA
The strike capability adds to the aircraft’s competition factor. While the SR-71 was certainly old and costly to operate, the aircraft was competing with spy satellites. Launching satellites has dropped nearly 10x the price since the aircraft was deliberately leaked to the press, and luckily for the SR-72 fans, Lockheed Martin has unveiled more to compete.
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It’s all about hypersonic capabilities
- Estimated speed: 4,000 mph (6,437 kph)
- Estimated altitude: 85,000 ft (25,900 m)
While the SR-71 was competing with satellites when it retired, spy satellites now have a key disadvantage: they are in orbit. Being in orbit, potential adversaries are able to predict when spy satellites will overfly areas they would like to keep private. Modern-day military bases are built to provide overhead coverage as much as possible to prevent overhead espionage, so with calculative orbits, it's easy to hide sensitive material before satellites pass by.
Hypersonic weapons are also harder to detect. Launching an object, like a ballistic missile, into space gives radar, which can see beyond the earth's curvature, more time to detect the object. Hypersonic weapons, even at altitude, are able to avoid detection for longer, and combined with their speed, this gives a potential enemy limited time to react to their presence.
Meanwhile, countries that currently challenge the United States for global leadership have advanced heavily in their own hypersonic technologies. Russia and China lead the United States in hypersonic technology. Russia has already deployed hypersonic cruise missiles during its Invasion of Ukraine, while China has already deployed hypersonic cruise missiles designed for US carrier groups.
Doubling the SR-71’s speed is no easy feat. The United States and other contractors have already failed to build hypersonic equipment that is ready to be deployed. Lockheed Martin, on the other hand, has said that the promised speed of Mach 6 is the sweet spot for its technology.
First flights
- Planned first flight: 2025
- Planned service entry: 2030
Despite some time passing between 2013 and now, Lockheed Martin has maintained the ability of the aircraft to be armed. Lockheed Martin has also said that it has plans to test-fly the aircraft in 2025, with entry into service in 2023. In the latest available public information offered about the SR-72, Lockheed revealed that the aircraft would be unmanned.
Committing to the aircraft’s armament, Lockheed has said that the aircraft would be able to fire hypersonic missiles. It's unclear what additional capabilities aircraft must have in order to launch hypersonic weaponry; test missiles manufactured by Boeing have been previously launched on B-52 bombers.
Attention from NASA and Hollywood
The original Top Gun was one of the best events for the US Navy’s recruitment, and its sequel has unquestionably benefited the defense contractor. Without directly identifying the fictional aircraft as the SR-72, Lockheed Martin has published at least two web pages about the SR-72’s role in the Top Gun movie sequel. In that movie, the aircraft is referred to as the Darkstar, and Lockheed has bragged about its appearance.
The SR-72 development has also received funding from NASA. The space agency has contracted with Lockheed on the development of hypersonic-capable engines that have allowed the aircraft manufacturer to develop the combined ramjet turbine jet engines required to propel the SR-72.