''Sea Shadow'' (IX-529) was an experimental stealth ship built by Lockheed for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

to determine how a low radar profile might be achieved and to test high-stability hull configurations that have been used in oceanographic ships.

Development

''Sea Shadow'' was built in 1984 to examine the application of

stealth technology Stealth technology, also termed low observable technology (LO technology), is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive and active electronic countermeasures. The term covers a range of military technology, methods used to make personnel ...

on naval vessels and was used in secret until a public debut in 1993. In addition, the ship was designed to test the use of automation to reduce crew size. The ship was created by the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

(DARPA), the U.S. Navy and Lockheed. ''Sea Shadow'' was developed and built at Lockheed's

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area of Northern California, approximately south of San Francisco and northwest of San Jose, California, San Jose. The city's population was 84,292 accor ...

, facility, inside the Hughes Mining Barge (HMB-1), which functioned as a floating dry dock during construction and testing.

History

''Sea Shadow'' had a SWATH (small-waterplane-area twin hull) design. Below the water were submerged twin hulls, each with a propeller, aft stabilizer, and inboard

hydrofoil A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...

. The portion of the ship above water was connected to the hulls via the two angled struts. The SWATH design helped the ship remain stable in rough water up to sea state 6 (wave height of 18 feet (5.5 m) or "very rough" sea). The shape of the superstructure was sometimes compared to the

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" ...

of the ironclad ram of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. ''Sea Shadow'' had 12 bunks, one small microwave oven, a refrigerator and table. It was not intended to be mission-capable and was never commissioned, although it was listed in the Naval Vessel Register. ''Sea Shadow'' was revealed to the public in 1993 and was housed at the San Diego Naval Station until September 2006, when it was relocated with the Hughes Mining Barge to the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in Benicia, California. Until 2006, ''Sea Shadow'' and the HMB-1 were maintained and operated by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

for the U.S. Navy. The vessels were available for donation to a maritime museum. The USNS ''Impeccable'' and '' USNS Victorious'' ocean surveillance ships have inherited the stabilizer and canard method to help perform their stability-sensitive intelligence collection missions. In 2006, the U.S. Navy tried to sell ''Sea Shadow'' to the highest bidder; after the initial offering met with a lack of interest, it was listed for dismantling sale on gsaauctions.gov. The U.S. government mandated that the buyer not sail the ship and be required to scrap it. The ship was finally sold in 2012. ''Sea Shadow'' was dismantled in 2012 by Bay Ship & Yacht Company of

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

In popular culture

In the 1997 James Bond film ''

Tomorrow Never Dies ''Tomorrow Never Dies'' is a 1997 spy film, the eighteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode from a screenplay ...

'', media tycoon Elliot Carver ( Sir Jonathan Pryce) operated a stealth ship that resembled ''Sea Shadow'' appearance. Christened as ''Sea Dolphin II'' in the film, the secret and stealthy floating lair was used as a plot device to attempt to initiate World War III. The 1994 video game '' Urban Strike'' features ''Sea Shadow'' as an enemy unit. Its 1997 sequel, '' Nuclear Strike'' features the craft as home base. The craft also appears thrice in the single-player campaign of '' Act of War: High Treason'' (a 2006

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

game by Eugen Systems) as an enemy unit. This fictional version is a stealthy aircraft carrier, capable of housing one X-32 JSF VTOL. The craft is not playable outside the single-player campaign.

References

External links

Navy news article

"The Navy Has a Top-Secret Vessel It Wants to Put on Display"
by Barry Newman - ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' - February 24, 2009
Virtual Tour of Sea Shadow and HMB-1
{dead link, date=May 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Lockheed Martin Sea Shadow Sea Shadow Small waterplane area twin hull vessels 1985 ships High speed vessels of the United States Navy Stealth ships Ships built by Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company Catamarans of the United States Navy Military catamarans Experimental ships of the United States Navy

Development

History

In popular culture

See also

References

External links