DARPA Mach 6+ plane

Rico's friend Kelley, also a military buff, forwards this, War History Online article by Jay Bennett
 with the note: "Next stop, downtown Pyongyang..."

Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson announced recently that the aerospace company has made "several breakthroughs" on a hypersonic warplane that could reach Mach 6, known as the Hypersonic Test Vehicle 3X, or HTV-3X.
The growing research in hypersonic flight is part of the DARPA Falcon Project, an effort to develop hypersonic vehicles capable of performing airstrikes anywhere in the world within one hour, a military goal known as Prompt Global Strike (PGS). Lockheed Martin has a legacy of making fast aircraft, such as those in DARPA's Hypersonic Test Vehicle programs.
In her statement at Lockheed Martin's annual media day, Hewson discussed multiple hypersonic projects:

We accomplished several breakthroughs on HTV-3X, and we're now producing a controllable, low-drag, aerodynamic configuration capable of stable operation from take-off, to sub-sonic, trans-sonic, super-sonic, and hypersonic, to Mach 6.
Most importantly, we're proving a hypersonic aircraft can be produced at an affordable price. We estimate it will cost less than a billion dollars to develop, build, and fly a demonstrator aircraft the size of an F-22.
The other DARPA program, the HTV-2, has demonstrated robust and stable aerodynamically controlled flight at speeds greater than Mach 20.
The HTV-2 and HTV-3X are proposed unmanned transonic aircraft that could perform long-distance airstrikes. The HTV-2 has been part of two launch tests, but the HTV-3X program was put on hold due to budget shortages in 2008.
The HTV-2 is an experimental aircraft that is capable of achieving Mach 20, or about thirteen thousand miles per hour, after being launched on a rocket. Two HTV-2 launch tests were conducted, one in 2010 and one in 2011. After the second launch on a Minotaur IV rocket in 2011, the HTV-2 successfully hit speeds between Mach 17 and Mach 22 before crashing into the Pacific as a safety precaution.
The HTV-3X, referred to as Blackswift before the project stalled out in 2008, differs from the HTV-2 in that it would take off and land conventionally, rather than be launched by rocket. The HTV-3X would be the size of a conventional fighter jet.
Lockheed is also working on a hypersonic spy plane that was announced in 2013. The SR-72 is designed to fly at Mach 6, twice as fast as Lockheed's famous SR-71 Blackbird, which was retired from military service in 1998. The 2013 announcement suggested that flight tests for the SR-72 could happen as soon as 2018.
It's difficult to say when we might see flight tests for the HTV-3X, or what the "several breakthroughs" are that have encouraged Lockheed to return to the project after an eight-year hiatus. But clearly the Pentagon is committed to developing transonic flight for the military, and Lockheed has responded.

Rico says downtown Damascus, too, maybe... (But Rico wonders what it will sound like on the ground when the plane goes over at Mach 6, let alone Mach 20... Of course, at Mach 20, it'll be long gone before you hear anything.)