[rosenkranswa]

Talking with some friends in a position to know, satellites can do quite a bit, but not all that is needed for intel gathering. They are in a fixed orbit and can be tasked specifically, but are bound by when they are over the area of interest. For certain kinds of things you still need to be able to overfly an area maybe with special kinds of imaging equipment not available on the satellite. Hence the need for an SR-71 replacement, which many theorize is the Aurora or SR-75.