Sea Shadow is a stealthy ship that Lockheed built as an experiment for the United States Navy. It had a low radar profile and a high stability hull design. It never served a combat mission. It was also built inside a dry dock. It did not have rudders.
Sea Shadow was an experimental stealthship
Sea Shadow was built for the Navy as a test platform for stealth technology. The ship was equipped with a SWATH hull, radar and sonar control system. The hulls of the ship were equipped with hydrofoils to keep the ship stable even when it was moving fast. A propeller and hull stabilizer were also included on the ship. After it was delivered in March 1985, Sea Shadow was used for nighttime tests near the Santa Cruz Islands. It was later locked inside HMB-1 for repairs and maintenance. During the initial trials, crew members noticed that the ship was producing huge wakes behind itself. This was because the propellers had been installed in an unbalanced position. In 1993, Sea Shadow's hulls became public. Later, the hull of Sea Shadow was placed in a maritime museum.
It wasn't mission-capable.
Sea Shadow, although it was not capable of carrying out missions, performed many heroic feats for the government. It was designed with advanced automation systems in mind and featured a bunk-style interior including a microwave, fridge, and table. It was at that time the most expensive dorm space ever built. Despite its high cost it was never commissioned. It never became mission-capable.
It was built within a floating dry-dock
Sea Shadow is an illustration of a stealthship. The design of the ship was inspired by the stealth ship that was used by the CIA to recover the downed Soviet submarine K-129. Today, the Sea Shadow sits on a barge in Suisun Bay, California. The ship is up for sale for $100,420
It did not have any rudders
Sea Shadow was never intended to be a mission-capable submarine, but it was a huge success in Navy stealth testing. The submarine used stabilizers instead of traditional rudders. The ship was intended to demonstrate stealth fighter jets' capabilities and test experimental technologies. In 1993, the Sea Shadow was made public for the first time. It was finally scrapped in 2006.
It was without a weather deck
This article uses information from U.S. government publication Naval Vessel Record. You can see the entry for Sea Shadow here.
It was demolished for scrap
The Sea Shadow prototype stealth submarine was designed. Although the ship was designed to avoid Russian spy satellites it was never authorized for commission and ended up with the Navy's Mothball Fleet near Benicia in California. Crew soon found out that the propellers had been installed in the wrong direction. The ship was only used to test stealth technology.