Death from 80,000 feet...

Fire-Breathing Dragon Lady

At several points over the career of the U-2 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, Lockheed engineers have looked at the possibility of arming the Dragon Lady. This photo, circa 1965, shows a U-2R model in the Lockheed low speed wind tunnel in Burbank, California, with various air-to-air missiles and free-fall munitions on fourteen hardpoints under the wings.

I don't what madman at Lockheed Martin came up with this idea but the thought of a 1000 pound bomb dropping from 80,000 feet onto a target is enough to give me pause.

With the F-22 fans all atwitter about the advantage of operating at high altitude, imagine a spyplane flying another 30,000 feet above the max ceiling of most fighters (without the pilots in those fighters having to wear spacesuits) raining AMRAAMs at them and you have a MIG killer from hell.

That is if super high flight is actually an advantage in aerial combat.

Anyway, as usual, someone already thought to try.