(Image: Amy Heiden Photography; withdrawn stealth ship Sea Shadow mothballed at Suisun Bay, California)
With the success of the top secret Have Blue stealth technology demonstrator programme, which ultimately led to the groundbreaking F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack jet, American defence giant Lockheed sought to take its knowledge of low observables developed on black project planes and apply it to naval vessels. The result was the highly classified stealth ship known as Sea Shadow which, despite its exotic appearance, never proved as popular as its airborne counterpart.
Sea Shadow (IX-529) was built in Redwood City, California and set sale in secret for the first time in 1984. Developed by Lockheed for the United States Navy and funded in large part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the stealth ship was used to test the application of low observable technology to military watercraft as well as a high stability configuration reflected in its distinctive twin hull design.
The 164 ft, diesel-electric-powered stealth ship also sought to test automation in a bid to reduce the number of crew required to operate it. As such, the vessel was somewhat spartan inside, fitted with just 12 bunks, a table, a fridge and a microwave oven. But luxuries (or lack of) aside, Sea Shadow remained an important programme until the end of the Cold War saw it finally revealed to the public in 1993.
(Image: Amy Heiden Photography; the former black project was stored out of sight on the Hughes Mining Barge)
Despite the secrecy surrounding it, Sea Shadow remained a prototype and was never commissioned or put into production. From its unveiling in 1993, the one-of-a-kind stealth vessel was based at the San Diego Naval Station until 2006, when it was reportedly made available to any maritime museum that might want it.
Even today, after almost a decade in storage, the mothballed F-117 stealth fighter fleet remains one of the most impressive aircraft of its generation. Aviation museums would surely love to get their hands on one, but the production Nighthawks rest far from prying eyes, cocooned in their original hangars at Nevada’s secretive Tonopah Test Range Airport.
The fate of Sea Shadow, however, was rather different. After the US Navy had failed to interest a museum, the stealth ship was offered to the highest bidder. But once again buyers proved elusive. In the end the innovative stealth ship was advertised for scrap, with the condition that the buyer must destroy Sea Shadow.
(Image: Amy Heiden Photography; Sea Shadow remained part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet until scrapping in 2012)
From 2006 until its final dismantling in 2012, the mothballed stealth ship was stored amid the US Navy’s mighty ‘ghost fleet’ in Suisun Bay, California. Menacing and somewhat retro-futuristic, Sea Shadow was documented by photographer Amy Heiden beneath the roof of the Hughes Mining Barge (HMB-1), which shielded the secret ship from passing satellites during its days of classified operation.
The former black project craft may have failed to find a buyer, but its legacy lives on in Pierce Brosnan’s Bond outing Tomorrow Never Dies, where it inspired the villain’s own stealth vessel, and various classes of oceanographic ships that inherited its innovative, high stability hull design.
Related – Abandoned Warships: 10 Decaying Aircraft Carriers, Submarines & Other Military Vessels
The post Sea Shadow: The Menacing Form of Lockheed’s Abandoned Stealth Ship appeared first on Urban Ghosts Media.