Originally Posted by
Ewan Whosearmy
David
A year or two after the end of Gulf War I, I read in one of the broadsheets that the US Air Force had acknowledged the F-117 had operated in concert with a classified recce platform. Whatever it was has never been declassified.....................
E.W. Thanks for your time and reply,
i further believe, heaving read several reports, that at the end of the F-22/F-23 evaluation competion the F-23 was found to have better performance especially in low observability, but was significantly more expensive to produce. As the F-22 entered production the F-23 design was developed into a reconnaissance platform which has an almost symbiotic relationship with the F-22. The nature of the design of both craft and the sensor fit in the F-23 derivative are the reasons that the F-22 has never been offered for export. This derivative may or may not be the oft rumoured "TR-3", often confused with the tier3 unmanned project.
Thanks again for your time
Be lucky
David
P.S. The F-23/(TR-3) was built in small numbers as a plantinum asset