Lockheed Martin Skunk Works Unveils Next-Generation ‘Vectis’ Stealth Drone, as Rumors of Secretive SR-72 “Son of Blackbird” Persist

The Debrief ^ | September 23, 2025 | Micah Hanks

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Looks like...Nothing, but a beautiful nothing.

[Brian Griffin]

If a bomb or drone interferes with a light beam, one or more napalm canister shot(s) can be shot off to where the bomb or drone is likely to be.

A flaming ball of hardened metal would penetrate the explosive casing and set off the explosive at a point where it would do little damage.

[Brian Griffin]

It might have used sun tracking or compass guidance.

[Vermont Lt]

Well….I guess that is what folks have been seeing at night all over the place. It’s a UAP until the press release comes out.

[Red Badger]

Being next to Eglin AFB we see strange things in the sky all the time, people don’t even bother to look up..............

[NorthMountain]

I mean for flight control, not guidance. The tailless designs never worked very well until we got small, high speed computers to get an unstable aircraft to reliably fly. The (X|Y)B-35 and YB-49 programs all crashed due to the inherent instability of the design. We got fly-by-wire right with the F-16 and then the B-2. Both are inherently unstable.

[Vermont Lt]

I grew up next to a B52 base. Those things were over all of the time, day or night.

I know exactly what you mean about not even looking up. We would have relatives come visit and they would stand on the lawn gawking at the lumbering BUF on approach.

Now we have C5s. I stop and look at those things. They look like monsters in the air because they are so big.

[NorthMountain]

As for guidance, they could have used any combination of sun tracking, star tracking, inertial navigation, and terrain following via either RADAR or cameras. Project Pluto's Supersonic Low Altitude Missile (SLAM) would have used that, had we ever built the thing.

Why didn't we build SLAM? Three words: Nuclear Ramjet Engine ...

[Red Badger]

We have F-35’s. They are soooooo LOUD! You can hear them well after they have passed..............

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Exactly. That’s why the drone was expendable. Eject the film cartridge and destroy the drone. It was a one-way flight over enemy territory without the risk of losing a pilot like Gary Powers.

It was quite some thinking and design work at the time.

[Aeneas2112]

Yes.

I remember reading some magazines for the defense industry, not classified but for the people in the industry, ‘Defense Science Journal’ many years ago (my stepfather worked for Hughes on military stuff) and what was in an available magazine was 15 years ahead of what we had at the time. And if it’s on the cover of a magazine you know we have black and highly classified stuff that’s way beyond that.

[AnglePark]

Now we have C5s. I stop and look at those things. They look like monsters in the air because they are so big.

I was working in my garage a few months back and heard a jet flying over, sounding a bit different, so I went out to check it out. It was a C-17 flying low and not a half-mile away. Then I noticed another. Then another, and before I knew it I'd counted five total. I watched the first start its turn, then looked where it was headed and counted at least four more in the distance! A whole train of them. Really impressive sight.

[Tommy Revolts]

That’s a drone? Good Lord.

[GenXPolymath]

“Why didn’t we build SLAM? Three words: Nuclear Ramjet Engine ...”

Ahhh yes project Pluto, in all its 1960 evil scientist goodness. The ramjet from hell that left a trail of radioactive fission products behind it and when it completed its mission the whole thing crashed kamikaze style into its last target reactor white hot and melting down more vigorously being spread all over the impact zone. The reactor was in a state of melt down it’s whole flight it was designed to be at the edge of holding it’s fuel rods really plates in a semi liquid state. Yeah even the MIC of the 1960 wasn’t that insane to field such a weapon. The Russians on the other hand have not only fielded they let a couple fly already it’s not sure if they recovered the reactors or let them sink and stay sunk. The last time if flew it killed 5 of its boffins trying to recover it.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/08/14/russia-preparing-to-test-nuclear-powered-cruise-missile-despite-putin-trump-talks-reuters-a90209

[BatGuano]

Wow, I say, “WOW!”
Thank you, Red, for the update.
“Autonomous,” is a frightening word for an old Pilot to see.
To think that elevator operators thought their “skills” would always be needed!
Here we are looking at the advance of real “Auto,” displacing the skilled aviators of yore.
I’m happy to have had my go at it. 22,000 + hours from 1961 to 2007.
USAF, UAL, Ohio ANG, Coast Guard Auxiliary with my Piper Aztec!
Cheers!

[doorgunner69]

There was an obvious reason the F-117 only flew at night.

[doorgunner69]

“This will have the anti-gravity propulsion system, right? “

I am sure popular mechanix did an article bout that my now.

Along with all those rail gun and particle beam weapons articled being already deployed.

[Lurker]

You let us know when the Russian have enough of those to protect a thousand miles of track.

L

[doorgunner69]

C-17 is an amazing airplane. I watched one outside my office window swallow the armored VP limousine and 2 or three black SUVs. Parked side by side in the cargo hold mind you.

The takeoff and steep climb with that load was like it was empty.

[umbagi]

C5 = “Aluminum overcast”