On Nov 17, 3:55 pm, Tina wrote:
The following text is from Brian Shul's Sled Driver, his memoir of
flying the SR-71. It's a great read, and most of us has seen parts of
it before. If and when you read it, I'd appreciate your thoughts about
this. how is it such an airplane had been resticted to recon? Had any
been configured as a first strike weapon? I suppose some may have and
we'd never know.

I'd wonder the same thing about the U2.

Google "Lockheed YF-12A" and you'll find some material on the USAF
interceptor version. Not everyone believes that the Air Force was
serious about it; it may have been just a cover program for the SR-71,
the two-seat USAF version of the CIA's single-seat A-12.

As for an armed version of the U-2, google "sitting duck". Before its
first operational flight it was already clear that it was just a
matter of time before one got shot down; that's why the CIA started
the A-12 program in 1959, before the first of the two U-2 shoot-down
incidents.