In article ,
"C J Campbell" wrote:

One of the most important lessons, I think, coming from the war on terrorism
is that poor intelligence is becoming very costly. Satellites are
predictable and are unable to loiter over an area, while drones can cover
only relatively small areas. From Desert Shield up to now we have been
basically blind in our search for WMDs, terrorist and troop concentrations,
mobile Scuds, etc.

I think we are shooting ourselves in the foot, here. The SR-71 is relatively
cheap, there are enough spare parts to last virtually forever, and it would
be enormously effective in giving us better intelligence. The planes are in
pretty good shape; in fact, their airframes are stronger than they were when
first built. I believe these planes should be re-activated.

Simply put, we don't need supersonic speeds to loiter over terrorist hot
spots. Their weapons are short-ranged, so an armed TR-2 or Global Hawk
or something else that has a high loiter time will do the job, as the
British say, "spiffily."