Stock of the United States’ largest defence contractor Lockheed Martin was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank by 14.5 percent, with a price target of $523
The U-2 first flew in 1955. One was shot down over the USSR in 1960, and another was shot down over Cuba in 1962. They largely stopped flying over peer air defenses at that point.
That’s about a 7-year span where it was useful for its primary task. Hanging around to fly over Libya in 2011 is not the same as fulfilling the role the plane was designed for decades later.
Sure both were experimental, and the experiment with U2 was to make something fly so high that it couldn’t be intercepted. Turned out that the US underestimated the quality of the AD systems Soviets developed.
The purpose of the U2 was to make a plane that could never be intercepted for the rest of time? No, they saw a gap that the Soviets didn’t have protection for yet, so they exploded it. One the Soviets caught up and closed the gap, they went higher and faster with the SR71, then higher and faster with satellites. It’s always back and forth, and the U2 gave a valuable capability until a counter was developed.
Oh man, I remember seeing this U2 in museum, it did a great job intercepting Soviet AD 😂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident
And yet they have still been operational for 60 years after that… Funny that the U2 lasted longer than the Soviet Union.
The U-2 first flew in 1955. One was shot down over the USSR in 1960, and another was shot down over Cuba in 1962. They largely stopped flying over peer air defenses at that point.
That’s about a 7-year span where it was useful for its primary task. Hanging around to fly over Libya in 2011 is not the same as fulfilling the role the plane was designed for decades later.
as a museum piece
You should probably look up what the word “operational” means.
You think the U2 was an intercepter?
Removed by mod
So you’re just saying that one was once shot down as to why the U2 as a whole was an ineffective program?
The fact that they have never been put into mass production is a very clear indicator that it was an ineffective program.
Neither was the SR-71. Both programs had a very limited mission, which is why neither was ever produced in quantity.
Sure both were experimental, and the experiment with U2 was to make something fly so high that it couldn’t be intercepted. Turned out that the US underestimated the quality of the AD systems Soviets developed.
The purpose of the U2 was to make a plane that could never be intercepted for the rest of time? No, they saw a gap that the Soviets didn’t have protection for yet, so they exploded it. One the Soviets caught up and closed the gap, they went higher and faster with the SR71, then higher and faster with satellites. It’s always back and forth, and the U2 gave a valuable capability until a counter was developed.
The reality is that U2 was dead on arrival.