[teeman8r]

if no enemy planes are flying that high, why do we need to spend the money on a plane that does... shouldn't we build a better weapon for the areas where there might be an enemy... it's another 700 dollar toilet seat if you ask me... /sarcasm

it's cool to hear of american ingenuity dominance... of course even if it is another starwars redherring, that is cool to that the enemy is falling for it

[demosthenes the elder]

well, assuming a plane with these capabilities exists, think of it as a recallable ICBM...

[KevinDavis]

Maybe we are preparing for a Goauld invasion...

[edwin hubble]

"if no enemy planes are flying that high, why do we need to spend the money on a plane that does... "

You have a point... In fact the current Navy fighter,
the F-18, is nowhere near as fast as the cold-war developed F-14. It doesn't need to be any faster because there is no real competition.

But this hypersonic (space) plane will (eventually) allow us to put a human on the other side of the globe in a weapons platform in about 30 minutes.

And the space plane will give us the technology to achieve runway-to orbit flight. at 10% the cost of shuttle launch.

It is not just one aircraft's superiority. It is a huge leap in flight capability.