Message posted by Magoo on March 18, 2001 at 14:26:13 PST:

It is good to see the U-2 continuing on, although its mission today is so different to that of the original mission.

It was originally intended to overfly its targets and take snap-shots with a single look-down camera, then RTB with a canister full of film.

These days, there is NO WAY you'd take a U-2 within 100 miles of any target as it would be a sitting duck at the speeds it flies at against modern SAMs or fighters. It has Advanced Side-looking Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASARS), and a digital satelite uplink capability for near real-time viewing by not only those back at base, but also back in Washington too! There are also several other 'systems and enhancements' on board, whose capabilities we can only guess at!

Magoo

In Reply to: U-2 Info posted by Rocketfox on March 18, 2001 at 7:56:04 PST:

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