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Replaced by spy satellites
Michael Nagle/Getty Images
After its first flight in October 1963, the A-12 was deemed fully operational in 1965, achieving record-breaking speeds of up to 2,200 mph (Mach 3) — three times the speed of sound — and altitudes up to 90,000 feet.
Even today, the A-12 maintains records for the highest speed and altitude achieved by piloted jet with air-breathing engines.
Despite its record-breaking innovations, the A-12 only flew in one reconnaissance operation, codenamed Black Shield, from May 1967 to May 1968.
The A-12 captured high-quality imagery that could be processed and interpreted within hours of landing. Three A-12s flew 29 missions over East Asia, extracting intelligence for US forces during the Vietnam War.
Around the same time, the US began to deploy Corona photo reconnaissance satellites to gather intelligence about the Soviet Union. The satellites produced lower-quality imagery than the A-12 and were slower in getting imagery to photo-interpreters, but they were impervious to anti-aircraft missiles and less likely to provoke foreign nations than surveillance overflights.
But after a U-2 plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured in May 1960, most spy planes shifted to missions near their borders while still in international airspace. The U-2 and RC-135 Rivet Joint are still flown on reconnaissance missions by the US Air Force.
Amid concerns that Soviet radars could soon catch up with the A-12’s innovation, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the retirement of the A-12 in 1968. The US then proceeded with its successor, the SR-71, famed for its reconnaissance missions during the Cold War.