The Untold Story of the Stealth Ship Sea Shadow
An Insider’s View of the history and legacy of Sea Shadow
The Stealth Ship, Sea Shadow
After the success of F-117, the Nighthawk, there was an effort to apply the stealth technology to the challenging marine environment. In 1983, DARPA authorized the design and construction of an A-frame SWATH (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull) ship, later named the Sea Shadow. She was mothballed after initial testing and then modified and reactivated in 1992. Unveiled on Easter Sunday in 1993, her testing at Santa Cruz Islands demonstrated excellent signature management. Her unique SWATH shape, allowed her to operate stably in up to Sea State 5. Later, she participated in fleet exercises (war games) in San Diego, and operated with impunity. Built inside and operated from inside the Hughes Mining Barge (HMB-1) from 1985 till 2006, she was also demolished inside the barge in 2012.
The success of Sea Shadow has translated in forever changing the above-water shape of most new US and other Navy warships. Its patented steering system has been deployed on US Navy’s T-AGOS Class and other SWATH ships. The Sea Shadow was designed, built and operated by Lockheed Martin.
Because of being a classified program, its story could not be told for decades. I have tried to capture the details of its history and its legacy on this YouTube presentation. Kudos to the hundreds of people and many organizations that worked on it.
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S. K. Gupta is a former senior executive of a Fortune 50 corporation. He enjoys researching and writing about not-so-obvious things in life. Feedback welcome. sk.gupta.us at gmail dot com.
