The SR-71's impressive mission record was reached thanks to some unique features of its airframe, such as its ability to fly at more than three-and-a-half times the speed of sound at 88,000 feet, its small (for the time) Radar Cross Section (RCS), and its sophisticated electronic countermeasures (ECM).

These flight characteristics made the Blackbird safe against any attempt of interception conducted by enemy fighters or surface-to-air missiles (SAM), during its reconnaissance missions in the Russian skies during the Cold War years.