That's true. I guess you could use it as a high speed, quick response recon drone, once. But what does that get you if you have to abandon the vehicle (and perhaps its crew) to the tender mercies of the Iranians, N Koreans, or other bad guys. What an intelligence and propaganda bonanza would that be for them? And what if after they expose it, it turns out it didn't find anything while it was there. It would have all the embarrassment and tragedy of a failed Bin Ladin assassination mission, but it would cost us billions in development too.

Only if it worked perfectly and managed to make a clean getaway (perhaps radioing its intelligence back and then plunging into the ocean), would it be worthwhile. Besides, the whole point to drones is that they are cheap and expendable, you don't care if the enemy does capture one.

This is a very expensive device that serves no purpose, a technological triumph with no application in the real world. Unless there is something that hasn't been made very clear yet, it sounds like they didn't think this one through.

I have no problem with spending lots of money improving our intelligence gathering capabilities, but I would spend it on systems that were more flexible, and had more potential mission profiles, not on a one-trick pony that had only a one-shot chance of success.