Saturday, June 6, 2009

Top secret Navy vessel to be scrapped — unless you want it


I guess the Navy is too good for Ebay. Instead, the US aquatic fighting force is trying to find a new home for its top secret stealth ship, the Sea Shadow, and the barge that housed it and kept it safe from satellite detection. For the past two years the Navy hasn't had any luck, and will scrap the ships if no one wants them.
Both are relics from the Cold War. The Sea Shadow was designed escape detection on the water much like a stealth fighter would evade radar detection in flight. The accompanying barge, the Hughes, is the world's only "fully submersible dry dock," and would let the Sea Shadow come and go out of its 76-feet-wide, 72-feet-high door.
One man, Frank Lennon from Providence, Rhode Island, is interested in adding the vessels to the Soviet sub he's got, which was recently sunk by a storm and then raised again by Navy divers. The only problem is that the Navy wants to give both vessels away as part of a package, and the cost to maintain the ships is enormous — usually much more than a privately-run niche exhibit can rake in. Hopefully Mr. Lennon can find a way to accommodate the vessels — or convince the Navy to help — or else the odd history of both vessels will lack the presence of either

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