20-year-old stealth ship developed by the US Navy headed for the scrapyard unless a new home can be found
The brokerage market may be suffering at the moment, but this is ridiculous – the US Navy can’t even give away a former top-secret stealth ship.
She even comes with her very own submersible dry dock originally developed to raise a sunken Soviet submarine.
Sea Shadow, which looks like part of Darth Vader’s helmet stuck on two diagonal shards of hull, is no longer needed by the US Navy, which has been trying to give it away since 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal.
So far the only interested party is a naval museum in Providence, Rhode Island, whose only exhibit is a Russian sub that sank in 2007 during a storm.
Sea Shadow would make a fascinating exhibit. The 170ft-long craft was built in 1985 under the utmost secrecy, and only came to light in 1993 when the navy lifted the lid on the project.
According to one former officer who served on the ship, she was incredibly stable, barely shuddering in 12m seas. “We operated at night with impunity. We would disappear and sneak up on whomever we wanted,” S K Gupta told the newspaper.
But time, it would seem, is running out for Sea Shadow and her dry dock. If a new home isn’t found, both are destined for the scrapyard.
