The retirement of the SR71 indicates to me that there is some sort of undisclosed recon plane flying for the US.  I understand the costs of flying the SR71 were high, but I can't imagine the US would abandon the ability to fly on-demand recon over heavily defended airspace, a task the SR71 was uniquely suited to handle.  Yeah satellites can do a lot but they aren't everywhere at all times.  And yeah, the U2 can still take some fine photos, but it doesn't penetrate heavy defenses like the SR71 does.

So I think there's probably something else out there.  My guess would be some sort of un-manned low observable platform.  I don't know if this "Aurora" thing is real or just sci-fi (for example, if why would a low observable have to be so darned fast?) but there's probably something out there.

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Yeah, but I'm thinking it's a yet-undisclosed UAV.  I don't think the current crop of known UAVs could penetrate well defended airspace.  Perhaps I'm wrong...