Jun 222011
Well, I guess it was inevitable:
Unlike an airplane, a ship cannot be transported just anywhere (resticting it to the coasts and upa few rivers) and put on display on a simple concrete pad. And as a pure test vehicle, the innard don’t include such fun things as armories or gun turrets. And the outside is sufficiently simple as to be visually kinda dull after a few minutes. So… not much interest among the naval museums, it seems.
Might’ve made a nifty yacht, I’d bet. Just the thing for that luxury cruise past Somalia.
5 Responses to ““Sea Shadow” to be scrapped”
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And, with Murphy’s Law still in force, the day after they scrap it, will be the day the USN suddenly discovers they have a urgent need for Sea Shadow after all!
I’d like to see what’s below the waterline, on that one.
It seems to me that museums are missing a bit of history.
Here’s a good rear shot of her underneath the waterline, showing the props on her submerged drive pods:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aheiden/4311966645/
This photo of her sailing in non-black paint scheme closely resemblance the silvery finish used on the V-22 Osprey and the stealth helicopters that were used to attack in bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.
This finish is supposed to be used to give IR stealth:
http://izismile.com/img/img2/20090803/sea_shadow_05.jpg
Lockheed always stated that it was supposed to be some sort of prototype SAM carrier vessel; but it was so slow it would never be able to keep up with other ships in a attacking naval force.
You ask me, it was a prototype stealth landing craft which would blow ballast tanks in the front of the two submerged propulsion pods to allow the front end to be driven up on a beach, then lower a belly ramp to allow troops and vehicles to disembark.
For carriage to the combat area, it would ride in the floodable rear well of some sort of landing ship transport with forward and aft ballast tanks blown, then be disembarked at night and flood itself to operating depth out of range of shore-based radars. That would explain why its internal volume was quite large for its very small crew (wasn’t its total crew only three?) Assuming it was supposed to operate like a normal ship, you’d need two-three that many crew to allow time for people to sleep and be off-duty. A landing craft that would only spend a few hours reaching the beach wouldn’t have that problem.
Why was there were no museums interested in this weirdly designed ship? Since it is the remaining model of the type, it is now part of the history. It would be a huge waste ($195 million worth) is this stealth ship is put into a place where other no-use scrap metal resides.