Lockheed Martin SR-72 Lockheed Martin SR-72 The Lockheed Martin SR-72 is an American hypersonic UAV concept intended for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Lockheed Martin privately proposed it to succeed the retired Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. The SR-71 Blackbird retired in 1998, leaving what was considered a coverage gap between surveillance satellites, manned aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike missions. With the growth of anti-satellite weapons, anti-access/area denial tactics, and counter-stealth technologies, a high-speed aircraft could penetrate protected airspace and observe or strike a target before enemies could detect or intercept it. The proposed reliance on extremely high
General Dynamics 1993, which was one of the Western world's most-produced jet fighters. Production was sold to Lockheed Martin, but GD re-entered the airframe business in 1999 with its purchase of Gulfstream Aerospace. General Dynamics traces its ancestry to John Philip Holland's Holland Torpedo Boat Company. This company was responsible for developing the U.S. Navy's first modern submarines, built at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard in Elizabethport, New Jersey. The revolutionary submarine boat "Holland VI" was built there, its keel being laid down in 1896. Crescent's superintendent and naval architect Arthur Leopold Busch supervised the construction of this submarine, which was launched on