USN trying to dispose of/give away "top secret vessels" including USS Sea Shadow

[CougarKing]

Anybody want some top-secret seagoing vessels? The Navy has a pair it doesn't need any more. It has been trying to give them away since 2006, and they are headed for the scrap yard if somebody doesn't speak up soon. One is called Sea Shadow. It's big, black and looks like a cross between a Stealth fighter and a Batmobile. It was made to escape detection on the open sea. The other is known as the Hughes (as in Howard Hughes) Mining Barge. It looks like a floating field house, with an arching roof and a door that is 76 feet wide and 72 feet high. Sea Shadow berths inside the barge, which keeps it safely hidden from spy satellites. The barge, by the way, is the only fully submersible dry dock ever built, making it very handy — as it was 35 years ago — for trying to raise a sunken nuclear-armed Soviet submarine.

(Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2009, Pg. 1)

The same story on a Fox News online article

 

[HollywoodHitman]

I'm surprised Dr Evil hasn't jumped all over this. I wonder if there is a little tank inside for the sharks with lasers on them.

 

[Michael OLeary]

I can think of a few organizations headquartered in Columbia that might be interested in stealth ocean transports.

 

[ironduke57]

Maybe it is time to expand the maritime section in the Technik Museum here in Speyer. ;D
- http://www.technik-museum.de/museum_speyer_english.html
(That´s the one with the BURAN Prototype.)

Regards,
ironduke57

 

[aesop081]

What is it exactly that shocks you ?

If the US is willing to give it away, you can bet that they already know how to locate and track it no matter where it goes. I wouldnt be worried , "stealth" doesnt mean its undetectable.

Sea Shadow was a technology development ship and was used as  sort of proof of concept for certain design features not as a functional warship.