I still have the original drawingsSatellites. That’s what replaced them. Got enough satellites in orbit that we can photograph whatever we want without the risk of detection. Now we got drones that can hover.
I still have the original drawingsThe problem with satellites is that their tracks are predictable. You know when to hide things. One technician who worked for me was in the Air Force, and there were things that they had to put away due to when a certain satellite would fly over. As for drones hovering, it had better have a small RCS. Nice thing about the Blackbird/Oxcart/alleged successor is that it gives little notice and has limited exposure time. The Blackbird also had a low RCS.
You said “Got enough satellites in orbit that we can photograph whatever we want without the risk of detection.”
The SR-71 was retired at the beginning of 1990, thus it was not available to do recce flights over Iraq and especially Kuwait. After Saddam had the Kuwaiti oil fields set afire and along with the weather/sand storms there resulted in all of our satellites being “blind.” The only recce photo system available capable of penetrating that smoke/sand mixture were the cameras on the SR-71. Both the Army photo intelligence center (ITAC) and the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) requested (pleaded, I was told) to get a couple of the planes activated and deployed to that theater. DoD refused to authorize that reactivation. I was an intel analyst at ITAC when that happened.