Air Force chief hints at existence of clandestine spy aircraft

From what I've learned about these logic problems, you should ask what the other side would do, then do the opposite.

The concept of a drone with low RCS features is pretty sane by military tech standards, it would surprise me if they hadn’t been developing such a thing.

Please increase the quality of your commentary. The comments on the article page are better than the ones on HN in this case, sadly.

Right. Ukraine has shown how ad-hoc, battlefield 3d-printed charges on rooted FPV drones can be incredibly cheap and effective. Houthis are showing something similar. It's like the evolution the low-tech / cyberpunk of disgusting IEDs.

I also wonder if, in this context, the age of ultra-concentrations of super-high tech innovations across multiple fields (materials science, EW, aerodynamics, manufacturing) in super-expensive, long delivery time platforms is not the right strategy -- cool as all that stuff is. Practical warfare now seems a a lot more scrappy and "disruptive" to incumbent tech than seemingly anticipated.

Funny that Darkstar is actually quite similar to the project name of another X plane: Blackstar.

The similarity between “Blackstar” and the “Dark Star” in “Top Gun: Maverick” could indeed be a nod to the history and mystique surrounding classified aerospace projects.

Blackstar is often compared to other rumored or declassified programs like the SR-71 Blackbird, the Aurora spy plane, and various DARPA projects. Its secretive nature and advanced capabilities place it within the realm of speculative black projects.

Lockheed Martin is working on a SR-72 concept plane

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_SR-72

I bet it uses a similar technique to impulse responses in convolution reverb to modify the visible wavelengths according to some recorded object.

Normally it's the bad guys who have cloaking technology / shapeshifting abilities.