[wild_weasel]

Avionics are fantastic today. Detection is great and have improved dramatically since the days of Wild Weasels in Vietnam who knew they were being targeted...but not from where. IR targeting systems are still a big worry though.

Stealth is not the end-all-be-all I agree. As you said, the B-3 is putting the two together, going Mach two and being shady about it in the process. Its a medium sized bomber if I remember right, so they payload wont be on the order of B-52s, but thats ok. And thats out in the 2035-2040 timeframe I think so I'm sure that thing will get faster and stealthier too.

I wouldn't say my fast-bombers-left-behind comment was TOTALLY inaccurate. Fast bombers got left in the dust while we invested in stealth technology. Now that computers and experience are to the point where aerodynamics can actually be integrated and not merely gotten-around, building things to go fast is once again an option. We could have done it with the B-2, we had the skills, but the flying wing just had a bunch of natural X-section savings associated with it...that and Northrop loves it.

I wish the B-1s were used more. They are fantastic airplanes. The Air Force (from a financial point of view) has not been into them unfortunately, especially in the past, even though its proven itself time and again. B-52s still do most a ton of work these days too, even doing some CAS because of their loiter time and better function flying over Afghanistan than my beloved A-10s. The engines on those have trouble sometimes with the altitudes coupled with tight spaces in the mountains, they need more Ps!! (specific excess power)

The SR-71 really was the first "stealth" aircraft. You sure as hell are right on that. A lot of its cross-section savings were due to trial and error and experience on the part of the Skunk Works guys which I think is a real testament to their skills. Real understanding of how to trick radar didn't come until Denys Overholser got a hold of a Pyotr Ufimtsev paper on obscure e-mag calculations.

We agree on pretty much everything Box. I think the crux of my posts revolve around the fact that speed causes design problems (its the engineer in me talking). I think on that we can agree. Hope to see you on active duty someday by the way.