[jki275]

It certainly hasn't been flying over the Soviet Union.

It became obsolete in 1960. That doesn't mean it was no longer useful anywhere.

[jariel]

It's running 10-15K mission hours a year since 1960, that's pretty far from obsolete.

[jki275]

Yeah, I know what it does -- it's had many different missions grafted onto it. It's a cool plane.

But I mean it's obsolete for its original mission. It can't fly higher than Soviet SAMs anymore. It hasn't been able to since the 60s.

[boc]

Because the US had a new spy satellite program that took its place.