Lockheed’s advanced development factory, Skunk Works, originally planned to replace the United States Air Force’s trusty old U-2 “Dragon Lady” spy plane with another version of the popular reconnaissance aircraft has apparently shifted course. Now, the defense contractor is focusing on creating an unmanned “tactical” reconnaissance flier, as evidenced by their unveiling of an artist’s impression concept design at an Air Force conference in Washington on Monday.

This one:

tr x concept art

More from Flightglobal:

The designation is both a throwback to the U-2’s TR-1 designation in the 1980s but also symbolizes a change in thinking that could drive the design to be more of an affordable peace and wartime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) workhorse than a strategic, penetrating platform – like the supersonic Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

The company has previously called the next-generation concept the UQ-2 and RQ-X, but U-2 business development manager Scott Winstead says the designation change comes after a tactical discussion where TR-X was deemed to more closely reflect aircraft’s role.

“TR for tactical reconnaissance, and that’s really what we’re driving here: a tactical reconnaissance platform,” he says. “It’s designed to be a cheaper platform, so you’re not going to get into the exquisite stuff unless that’s something that you need to do. If it’s something that’s going to be a workhorse with the latest in technology and platform design, you’re more talking tactical reconnaissance rather than strategic reconnaissance.”

For your viewing pleasure, here’s footage of a Dragon Lady taking off and landing amid some undisclosed location’s setting sun (beware of the volume):