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STEALTH SHIPS
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30 April 2012 - DARPA - SEA SHADOW AUCTION
The Sea Shadow, a high-tech military sea vessel which cost more than $195 million to develop, only received an opening bid for the relatively tiny sum of $50,000, with only a $10,000 deposit required.
The ex-Sea Shadow is now to be disposed of by dismantling and scrapping the vessel within the USA, according to the description on the GSA website. “Dismantling is defined as reducing the property such as it has no value except for its basic material content.” The 164-foot experimental craft was first constructed in 1983 by Lockheed for the U.S. Navy and contains the same stealth technology used by its more famous aerial counterparts. Although it appears almost flimsy on the surface, it actually contains two submerged twin hulls and is specifically designed to withstand very rough ocean waves of up to 18 feet.
The vessel, which is able to evade radar detection due to its angular shape, cost just short of 157 Million dollars to develop. But it is now destined for the scrap heap unless someone takes it off the Navy.
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Ultimate Weapons - Stealth ship
While a crew of three runs the Stiletto, a dozen SEALs can slip off the back of the ship, in an 11-meter rigid inflatable boat -- or they can send a set of flying drones out on spy missions from the upper deck. The ship can stay on station for eight hours while the robots or the special forces are out on their operations. And the Stiletto can keep an even keel while it waits; it's cleared to operate in Sea State 5 -- waves twelve feet high and 157 feet long.
If the Stiletto works out as planned, it'll be good news for special forces. Because while every ship-maker says they've come up with the ideal commando-delivery system, several of the options haven't worked out as planned.
Take the Advanced SEAL Delivery System. "The subs were originally expected to cost $80 million each; the first one alone has cost $446 million," notes the Times-Dispatch. "The vessel was noisier than planned -- bad news for a submarine. Designs were changed to muffle the sound, and now the mini-sub vibrates too much." Which is defnitely not how commandos like to travel.
UPDATE 1:28 PM: Of course, Inside Defense had details on the ship months ago. A few:
* One reason for the unique shape is the ship was designed like an aircraft... OFT’s first director, Arthur Cebrowski, who died last month, was “very firm that we’re going to build an aircraft on the sea"... The hull has four distinct arches, which look like wings, that utilize air pressure to funnel water and glide along the surface.
* Through its “maritime data bus,” or on-board computer, the vessel will have the ability to “plug and play” with different sensors, linking with unmanned vehicles and other crafts of varying sizes, he said. With only one panel of windows for looking ahead, Stiletto will use deck cameras to give the crew a sense of what is happening around the ship.
* Production of the Stiletto prototype began in October 2004, costing $6 million in funds from OFT. Nearly the same amount has been earmarked by OFT and SOCOM combined for experimentation and testing.
UPDATE 2:37 pm: As C-Low notes in the comments, the latest issue of Defense Technology International has the Stiletto on the cover.
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Ultimate Weapons - USS Independence LCS2, Youtube
Latest Comments
A
source who has seen some of the final sequences of the 007 movie
describes the mysterious ship Bond must slip aboard to complete his
mission.
The stealth ship that 007 NEWS first reported looks like the one Lockheed Martin developed for the the US Navy. The ship's angular design allows for it to have a low radar signature making it almost undetectable by enemy radar.
There is a full scale model of the underneath of the ship at Pinewood Studios where the production is currently filming.
Exterior
full size shots of the stealth ship were filmed earlier this summer at
the tanks in Rosarito, Mexico which were also used in the filming of Titanic. Apparently the 6ft model used in those sequences has heavier
armor and is more weathered looking, but is basically the same as the
Sea Shadow, states the source.
The 007 stage at Pinewood Studios houses the set for the interior of the stealth ship as well as the place where Bond manages to break into the boat, writes the source.
The source says that the set and the entire stealth ship sequences look very cool. The rest of us will just have to wait until the movie comes out -- December 19th in the US and December 12th in the UK.
Sea Shadow: Stealth Ships
Built by Lockheed in total secrecy inside the famous Hughes Mining Barge, the Sea Shadow is the nautical equivalent of the F-117 "stealth fighter". The Sea Shadow is a SWATH (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull) vessel with all above-water surface sloped radically inward. She is 160 feet long, 70 feet in beam, 14 feet in draft, displaces 560 tons and her diesel-electric propulsion gives her a top speed of 13 knots. She is invisible to shipboard radar, even at close range.
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Solar Navigator MKII solar powered SWATH vessel You've got to be kidding - a solar powered stealth ship. Perhaps the marine drone of the future.
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Solarnavigator MKVI is the first civilian stealth boat with with autonomous capability and optional anti-pirate measures.
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Please Note: The Solar Navigator designs are not true Stealth Ships, but can . The solar swing wing concept has undergone continuous design, development and testing since 1995. Each new season our team incorporate improvements into an updated test bed model for evaluation purposes. Every effort is made to accurately reflect the latest amendments on this site. However, the specification of the final vessel is subject to change without notice. This is not a military vessel, but due to its ability to operate continuously without refueling and with some relatively simple autonomous electronic wizardry, this could very well be the ultimate unmanned surveillance stealth ship of the future with self defence capability.
STEALTH SUBMARINE
The Predator is designed to neutralize submarines at sea by sinking them silently and in such manner that the navy concerned would not know how they'd lost their boats. The Predator is therefore a stealth vessel. The delivery system and onboard weapon is classified, but the specification of the mini-sub itself uses off the shelf technology that is well publicized.
A Predator is good value for any Navy that wants to level the playing field and is operating on a budget. A nuclear submarine is worth $billions, representing a significant investment - that is a double edged sword. For although a large modern nuclear submarine is a formidable fighting machine and a visible deterrent, once such a warship is sunk, that leaves a big hole in any fleet. Aircraft carriers and indeed, any type of warship at sea is also a vulnerable target and may be neutralised for a little over $2 million - not much more than the cost of a modern torpedo. The question is then why would you keep a fleet of vulnerable ships at sea, apart from the feel good factor. The days of spectacular broadside engagements are over. Much as we like a good 2nd World War film on the subject, these days it's no big guns, but big ideas that win battles.
Unlike a torpedo which may miss its target, a Predator mini-submarine is initially guided by sensitive electronics, then confirmed by the pilot submariner. The method of sinking can be tailored to the target craft. Overt operations will succeed, but covert stealth operations may be more effective.
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Stiletto was constructed in 15 months starting Oct 04. She is made completely out of Carbon fiber. Her purpose is to insert emerging technology at little cost due to her Electronic Keel and to provide a venue for operational experimentation. It is not perfect, nor is she designed to solve everyone's needs (no she does not submerge - we left that to the Billion $ club).
What she is designed to do is expand our technical competence against an elusive adversary and learn operationally in a very short period of time. With regards to its survivability or operational relevancy we will all learn by her mere existence. Is she easy to kill? We seem to easily lose sight that most military systems are all easy to destroy by a willing enemy.
Our objectives should be focused on matching our adversaries at scale with an ability to cope and adapt – surely the Stark, Cole, M-1 ABRAMS, and Hummers have taught us how easy it is to kill systems designed to survive everything our engineering imagined – unfortunately what our engineers imagine, often do not align with what our enemy intends.
Stiletto out performed our expectations – with advanced speeds in calm waters and not so calm, also out performing in other areas in a time frame and within a cost.