The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” is a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft. The first flight of an SR-71 took place on Dec. 22, 1964, and the first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base (AFB), Calif., in January 1966.
The US Air Force (USAF) retired its fleet of SR-71s on Jan. 26, 1990, because of a decreasing defense budget and high costs of operation.
During its 24 years of service, the SR-71 Blackbird gathered intelligence in some of the world’s most hostile environments. The Blackbird evaded all 4,000 missiles fired at it and, to this day, remains the only USAF aircraft to never lose a crewmember associated with it; whether in the air or on the ground.
But could the SR-71 be shot down by missile systems such as Russia’s S-300 or S-400?
‘Looks like I’m going to give the only “no” answer so far,’ Damien Leimbach, former USAF Avionics Technician on U-2 aircraft, says on Quora.
‘The S-200, S-300 and S-400 are amazing platforms, and given their stated performance, the 300 and 400 could probably hit a target at the Sr-71’s speed and altitude. But that is not the same as hitting an SR-71.
‘Now, could those missiles shoot down the version of the SR-71 that existed in the 70’s or 80’s? Sure.
‘But the question was could it shoot down the SR-71 if it were still in service, and if it were still in service, it would have received the same jamming and Electronic Warfare upgrades as other planes have.
‘Would these EW jammer upgrades make the plane immune from those missiles? Yes it would.
‘How do I know? Well, because I spent 6 years, recently, working on the sibling of the SR-71, the U-2 and as an electronics specialist I was directly responsible for installing and maintaining the AN-ALQ 221 jammer that made our high flying (but slow moving) plane immune to those missiles as well.
‘The U-2 and the SR-71 don’t just take pictures. They listen to cell phones. They monitor radios. And they also listen to, record and analyze the frequencies, pulse rates, variable modes and power outputs of enemy SAM systems like the S-200, 300 and 400.’
He continues;
‘We know everything about them. We know how they work, so it’s very easy to design systems to defeat them. The -300 is 1970’s Russian technology, which makes it about as sophisticated from an electronics standpoint as 1950’s American tech. The 400 is just an upgraded version of that. But we’ve had a long time to study them and build electronic countermeasures.
‘When the Berlin wall fell in 1989, and East and West Germany reunified, the very first thing NATO did was go in and scoop up all the Russian military tech it could find. We got T-80’s, We got Fulcrums and we got entire missile battalions worth of S-300 missiles.
‘When other very poor nations like Belarus and Moldova split away from the USSR, we bought other stuff, like Flankers, Hinds, and more missile systems.
‘Only Russia, China and India operate the -400, but as much as they want access to American markets, I’m more than sure we’ve been allowed to peek at the equipment, and a missile or two may have fallen off a truck somewhere.
‘Maybe its cheating a little, but buying out the competition is the American way. The point is, we know exactly what their missile systems can do and we’ve known for a long time. We build those upgrades into the U-2 and if we still flew the SR-71, we would build them into it as well.’
Leimbach concludes;
‘So, no, if modern weapons can’t even take down the U-2, they could not shoot down the SR-71.’
Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Facebook Pages Habubrats and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.
Photo credit: Judson Brohmer / U.S. Air Force, Vitaly V. Kuzmin via Wikipedia and Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
‘Once Lt.Col. Christopher Baker located him, I remained up high to act as a radio… Read More
The fighter groups – especially the P-47 Thunderbolt-equipped units – took the war to the… Read More
The RB-57D was on a course that would take it into the range of the… Read More
The successful flight of the first Slovakian F-16 Block 70 occurred on Sep. 29, 2023… Read More
The actual unofficial top speed of the SR-71 Blackbird is Mach 3.52. This happened because… Read More
Pilot error caused the former Airwolf Bell 222 and its crew to impact near a… Read More
View Comments
But remember that the on 27th March 1999, the US F117 Nighthawk Stealth aircraft was shootdown by an S-125 Neva, 1950's missile system, not even S-300. The second F117 damaged also. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_F-117A_shootdown
and they hit those two while turning on the radar for 18 seconds, how much was allowed. The missiles detonated via proximity fuse. Furthermore, 7 u2 planes have been shot down with an earlier Sa-2 system. And those systems (which were the first ever to record a ground-to-air hit, went off to shoot those U2s and damage which led to the creation of the SR-71, which never flew over Soviet territory. It was made in order not to do flyovers. So no missilles haave been fired at it because it stayed in international waters. The 4k missiles shot at it is refering to the A-12, which belongs to the same family. 12 out of 32 crashed by themselves so no need for it to be shot down. Better to put it in a mudeum to preserve the American mythology for further generations
Comments about s-300 and 400 are wrong.
If you have more info, please share them with us ;-)
Sr-71s have had many Sam's shot at them.
That is purely propaganda. The S-300 that ex Soviet state have and the new S-400 are miles away in comparison. The S-400 radar and EW system are state of art in modern defense system. Thus S-400 operate in an integrated system. The group can fire 4 different missiles. One at Mach 14. There's no conventional fighter jets that can outrun Mach 14 missiles.