I've heard that the SR-71's primary purpose was strategic reconnaissance in the event of nuclear war. Apparently, they were going to gather intelligence after the bombs had fallen, assessing enemy damage and their remaining capabilities.
What i don't fully understand is how the USAF expected the Blackbird to get off the ground before a first strike or even a retaliatory strike?
I couldn't imagine the response time being anywhere close to fast enough, mid-air refuel is needed immediately after takeoff and also the crew had to squeeze into space suits.
Additionally, the Soviets certainly knew the location of the bases. From what I was able to gather, the SR-71 was only stationed at three primary locations.
*(Beale/Edwards Air Force Base, California),
*(Kadena Air Base, Japan),
*(Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England)
I'm sure that I misunderstood something along the way.
I would really appreciate some clarification on the SR-71's intended role as a strategic reconnaissance platform.
Any corrections or insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
You may have heard a bit wrong. The SR-71 was a strategic reconnaissance platform, but it was designed for that role in the context of the Cold War in the 1960s, not for a hypothetical nuclear war.
The SR-71 was intended to provide strategic reconnaissance over targets defended by more sophisticated air defenses, relying on a combination of its altitude, speed, reduced radar cross section, and electronic countermeasures to keep it safe over the target. Strategic reconnaissance doesn't mean exclusively post-strike reconnaissance during wartime - rather, they'd go after the same kinds of targets aircraft like the U-2 were looking at before the U-2 shootdown, such as airfields, factories, and other targets critical to military infrastructure.
You do bring up a good point about the operability of the SR-71, though, and that was a real issue that was recognized. The SR-71 required a large amount of specialized infrastructure to support its operations, and that in turn limited the bases it could be deployed to and required a lot of staging of other pieces of equipment - particularly refueling aircraft - for a successful mission. This increased response time would be a factor in the cancellation of the YF-12 interceptor program, which was derived from the Blackbird.