STEALTH SHIPS

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Juliet Marine System - Ghost boat

Submarines are true stealth warships. But even then can be detected by their underwater sound and pressure wave signatures. When submerged they are most efficient running. And they have to keep moving to maintain depth, except when resting on the ocean bed, or surfaced.

That is the problem with many stealth designs, they are high drag hulls, are quite expensive to build, or have complications. And, you are wasting your time filing patents or speaking with most navies, UK Royal Navy and US NAVY. They will steal your idea and blacken your character, drain your brain like a prune and spit out the pip. They'd rather retire you than change what they do. Don't rock the boat. Defence contracts are only for those in the fold. They loathe innovation like the plague. And detest entrepreneurs with new ideas. What they do adore is procurement fraud.

The 'Elizabeth Swann' cruising up the Amazon, seen here in normal low-drag hull mode, with solar wings tilted down on both sides, about 30 degrees from horizontal.

The Elizabeth Swann is a virtual 'stealth' ship due to the angles of the hull design, and the ability of the vessel to change the angle of her solar wings relative to the horizon. In addition, the electric waterjet drives reduce the sonar signature, making them linearly directional, as opposed to an unguarded general sound broadcast, as in a traditional ship, open revolving propeller design.

These features, allied to the ability to flood tanks (compartments in the trimaran hulls) to lower the boat into the water, to reduce surface area to the wind, actually for use as a sea-anchor in storm conditions, can make the ship virtually undetectable to radar and sonar.

For most of the time, the ship is well above the water, using wave piercing hulls. Thus runs efficiently, until dangers present.

This is more of an advantage than a ship that cannot alter its form, by virtue of fixed hull and superstructure panels, and fixed displacement. For example, the Elizabeth Swann can change the angle of large wing-panels at will, to be visible to radar at one moment, then invisible a few minutes later. That is much more confusing to an enemy, than a ship that has reduced visibility all of the time. Because, if a ship is visible to radar, the enemy will think they can track it and feel safe that they know where it is. Then if it suddenly disappears, confusion sets in. Because the ship could have sunk or changed course, when in reality its radar footprint has changed. The Elizabeth Swann is the first (and we think only) ship in the world to have these features. She has what the designer calls an "active" hull.

THE NATURAL WORLD

Many insects have evolved to use body parts as camouflage. Their exoskeleton design is almost perfectly suited to such purposes. Where the body is hard keratin on the outside, as opposed to a soft skin on the outside and a hard bone skeleton on the inside. Keratin can be formed into horns or wing cases (in beetles) or make an insect look like a leaf (praying mantis) or stick. 

Plumage, fur and feathers give mammals and birds the ability to disguise themselves, to blend into their surroundings. Peacock tail feathers give us an example of a massive colour display used to frighten enemies and as a courtship display. Zebra have white and black lines in their body hair, as camouflage to fool big cat predators during a chase. Humpback whales have large white and grey patterns on their enormous fins to trick sharks and killer whales trying to bite them, as to what to aim at. While from above, they present as dark-grey or blue-black, to blend into the seascape. In WWII, aircraft adopted such a two-tone scheme, painted light blue underneath and field green on top of their wings and fuselage.

All of this is survival strategy. Whereas, Leopards and Cheetahs have spots to disguise them when resting in trees and stalking prey. Tigers have stripes for hunting in the jungle, while Lions are plain sandy-brown, to blend into the African savannah. Yet these large predators from different continents are so biologically similar, that they can reproduce, to give Tions or Ligers.

Humans can alter their appearance in seconds, just by changing clothes. Humans can also dye the colour of their hair and wear hats. By changing from jeans and a 'T' shirt, into a suit, a student can blend in at high level social functions and fool their peers. An operative who would normally wear a shirt and tie to work, can put on an overall to mix with workers.

The ultimate camouflage for a human is a combat uniform. These come in many printed colours and designs, depending on the geographical location of operations. Some are black (night operations), some white (snow), and some sandy colored with green leaves. In the field of human conflict, if a spy is caught wearing the uniform of their enemy, they can sometimes be shot (despite the Geneva Convention), after a lawful trial and conviction.

SPIES & SPYING

There are several types of soldier who do not qualify as privileged combatants:

- Combatants who would otherwise be privileged but have breached the laws and customs of war (e.g., feigning surrender or injury or killing enemy combatants who have surrendered). The loss of privileges in that case only occurs upon conviction, i.e. after a competent court has determined the unlawfulness of the conduct in a fair trial.

- Combatants who are captured without the minimum requirements for distinguishing themselves from the civilian population, i.e. carrying arms openly during military engagements and the deployment immediately preceding it, lose their right to prisoner of war status without trial under Article 44 (3) of Additional Protocol I.

- Spies, i.e. persons who collect information clandestinely in the territory of the opposing belligerent. Members of the armed forces conducting reconnaissance or special operations behind enemy lines are not considered spies as long as they wear their uniform.

Espionage against a nation is a crime under the legal code of many nations. In the United States, it is covered by the Espionage Act of 1917. The risks of espionage vary. A spy violating the host country's laws may be deported, imprisoned, or even executed. A spy violating its own country's laws can be imprisoned for espionage or/and treason (which in the United States and some other jurisdictions can only occur if they take up arms or aids the enemy against their own country during wartime), or even executed, as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were.

STEALTH SHIPS

A stealth ship is a ship which employs stealth technology construction techniques in an effort to ensure that it is harder to detect by one or more of radar, visual, sonar, and infrared methods.

These techniques borrow from stealth aircraft technology, although some aspects such as wake and acoustic signature reduction (acoustic quieting) are unique to stealth ships' design. Though radar cross-section (RCS) reduction is a fairly new concept many other forms of masking a ship have existed for centuries or even millennia. 

SHAPE OF STEALTH SHIPS

n designing a ship with reduced radar signature, the main concerns are radar beams originating near or slightly above the horizon (as seen from the ship) coming from distant patrol aircraft, other ships or sea-skimming anti-ship missiles with active radar seekers. Therefore, the shape of the ship avoids vertical surfaces, which would perfectly reflect any such beams directly back to the emitter. Retro-reflective right angles are eliminated to avoid causing the cat's eye effect. A stealthy ship shape can be achieved by constructing the hull and superstructure with a series of slightly protruding and retruding surfaces. Furthermore, round shapes on the ship are eliminated or covered up, examples include smokestacks and gun turrets. Also, cavities that present a horizontal face are to be eliminated since they act like a trap and are very visible to radar. To get around these limitations many ships use features such as panels that cover reflective surfaces or use alternate designs of hardware. Also, every effort must be made to have the smallest gaps on the ship as possible. Hull shapes include tumblehome hull designs which slope inward from the waterline, and small-waterplane-area twin hulls (SWATH) which allow for better stability when using a tumblehome hull. These RCS design principles were developed by several navies independently in the 1980s using work done on aircraft RCS reduction as the starting point.

The currently developed U.S. Zumwalt-class destroyer — or DD(X) — is the US version of a stealth ship. Despite being 40% larger than an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer the radar signature is more akin to a fishing boat, according to a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command; sound levels are compared to the Los Angeles-class submarines. The tumblehome hull reduces radar return and the composite material deckhouse also has a low radar return. Water sleeting along the sides, along with passive cool air induction in the back reduces infrared signature. Overall, the destroyer's angular build makes it "50 times harder to spot on radar than an ordinary destroyer.

The Swedish Navy's Visby class corvette is designed to elude visual detection, radar detection, acoustic detection, and infrared detection. The hull material is a sandwich construction comprising a PVC core with a carbon fibre and vinyl laminate. Avoidance of right angles in the design results in a smaller radar signature, reducing the ship's detection range.

Britain's Type 45 anti-air warfare destroyer has similarities to the Visby class, but is much more conventional, employing traditional steel instead of carbon fiber. Like Visby, its design reduces the use of right angles.

Taiwan's' Tuo Chiang-class stealth corvette are a class of fast stealth multi-mission corvettes currently in service with the Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy. The ships are designed to have a low radar cross-section and evade radar detection making it difficult to detect the ship when operating closer to the coastline.

Sea Shadow, which utilizes both tumblehome and SWATH features, was an early U.S. exploration of stealth ship technology.

SIGNATURE REDUCTION

Stealth technology represents more than just a low RCS; noise reduction plays a huge role in naval stealth because sound travels much better in water than air. Some of the techniques used include muffled exhaust systems, modified propeller shapes, and pump-jets. The shape of the hull can also have a great effect on the reduction of the noise from a ship. Another major element is signal emission control. Modern warships emit much electromagnetic radiation in the form of radar, radio, and even bleed-off from the ship's electrical systems. All of this can be used to track a ship and thus modern stealth ships often have a mode that switches off many of the electronic emissions, the downside of course is that the ship then has to rely on passive sensors and can't easily send messages further than line of sight.

Also of great importance are thermal emissions. A heat signature can make a ship stand out like a candle in a dark ocean making it easier to spot and because it is possible to see infrared emissions through features that would normally hide a ship such as fog, or a smoke screen, many detection platforms like patrol aircraft, UAV's, and satellites often have the ability to see multiple bands in the infrared spectrum including heat. This necessitates the control of these emissions. The most common way is to mix any hot gasses emitted by the main source of heat which is the engines exhaust with cold air to dilute the signature and make it harder to pick out the ship from the background warmth. Another method vents the exhaust into the water though this increases the ship's acoustic signature. For the hull water can be actively distributed across the hull of the ship cooling the ship. Another less crucial but still relevant part of a stealth ship is visual camouflage. This area is probably the oldest form of stealth, with records going back almost as far as the writing of ancient mariners using visual tricks to make their ships harder to spot. Though still relevant this area has taken on lesser importance with the advent of long-range radar. 

EXAMPLES OF FULL STEALTH SHIPS

Sea Shadow (IX-529) – American experimental stealth ship (1985, experimental platform)
La Fayette-class frigate – French general purpose stealth frigates (1996)
Hamina-class missile boat – Fast attack craft class of the Finninh Navy (1998)
Skjold-class corvette – Light, fast, stealth missile corvettes of the Royal Norwegian Navy (1999)
Type 22 missile boat – Ship class in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (2004)
Formidable-class frigate – Frigate class of the Republic of Singapore Navy (2007)
Visby-class corvette – Swedish stealth missile corvettes (2009)
Klewang-class – Stealth trimaran fast attack craft of Indonesian Navy fast attack craft (2010)
Independence-class littoral combat ship – US Navy small coastal combat ships (2010)
Ada-class corvette – Turkish anti-submarine ships (2011)
Tuo Chiang-class Stealth Corvette – Taiwanese class of war vessel (2014)
Zumwalt-class destroyer – Stealth missile destroyer class of the US Navy (2016)
Gowind-class design – French multi-role ship design (2017)
Type 055 destroyer – Class of guided missile stealth cruisers/destroyers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (2020)

STEALTH AIRCRAFT

Since radar-directed defenses began taking a toll of bomber formations in World War II, aircraft designers and military aviators have sought ways to avoid radar detection. Many materials of the early jet age were known to absorb radar energy rather than reflect it, but they were heavy and not strong enough for structural applications. It was not until after the 1960s and ’70s, with the development of such materials as carbon-fibre composites and high-strength plastics (which possessed structural strength as well as being transparent or translucent to radar), that radar signature reduction for piloted combat aircraft became possible.

While no aircraft is totally invisible to radar, stealth aircraft make it more difficult for conventional radar to detect or track the aircraft effectively, increasing the odds of an aircraft successfully avoiding detection by enemy radar and/or avoiding being successfully targeted by radar guided weapons. Stealth is the combination of passive low observable (LO) features and active emitters such as low-probability-of-intercept radars, radios and laser designators. These are usually combined with active measures such as carefully planning all mission maneuvers in order to minimize the aircraft's radar cross-section, since common actions such as hard turns or opening bomb bay doors can more than double an otherwise stealthy aircraft's radar return.

The existence of a Stealth program, designed to produce aircraft that were effectively immune to radar detection at normal combat ranges, was announced by the U.S. government in 1980. The first aircraft employing this technology, the single-seat Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk ground-attack fighter, became operational in 1983. The second was the Northrop B-2 Spirit strategic bomber, which first flew in 1989. Both aircraft had unconventional shapes that were designed primarily to reduce radar reflection. The B-2 was of a flying-wing design that made it only slightly longer than a fighter yet gave it a wingspan approaching that of the B-52, while the F-117A had a short pyramid-shaped fuselage and sharply swept wings.

Stealth aircraft are typically more expensive to develop and manufacture. An example is the B-2 Spirit that is many times more expensive to manufacture and support than conventional bomber aircraft. The B-2 program cost the U.S. Air Force almost $45 billion.

Reducing radar signature also required controlling shape, particularly by avoiding right angles, sharp curves, and large surfaces. In order to direct radar energy in the least-revealing directions, the external shape of a stealth aircraft was either a series of complex large-radius, curved surfaces (as on the B-2) or a large number of small, flat, carefully oriented planes (as on the F-117A). Fuel and ordnance were carried internally, and engine intakes and exhausts were set flush or low to the surface. To avoid interception of radar emissions, stealth aircraft had to rely on inertial guidance or other non-emitting navigational systems.

OPERATIONAL STEALTH AIRCRAFT

The U.S. and Israel are the only countries to have used stealth aircraft in combat. These deployments include the United States invasion of Panama, the first Gulf War, the Kosovo Conflict, the War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq and the 2011 military intervention in Libya. The first use of stealth aircraft was in the U.S. invasion of Panama, where F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft were used to drop bombs on enemy airfields and positions while evading enemy radar.

In 1990 the F-117 Nighthawk was used in the First Gulf War, where F-117s flew 1,300 sorties and scored direct hits on 1,600 high-value targets in Iraq[38] while accumulating 6,905 flight hours. Only 2.5% of the American aircraft in Iraq were F-117s, yet they struck 40% of the strategic targets, dropping 2,000 tons of precision-guided munitions and striking their targets with an 80% success rate.

In the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia two stealth aircraft were used by the United States: the veteran F-117 Nighthawk, and the newly introduced B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bomber. The F-117 performed its usual role of striking precision high-value targets and performed well, although one F-117 was shot down by a Serbian Isayev S-125 'Neva-M' missile commanded by Colonel Zoltán Dani. The then-new B-2 Spirit was highly successful, destroying 33% of selected Serbian bombing targets in the first eight weeks of U.S. involvement in the War. During this war, B-2s flew non-stop to Kosovo from their home base in Missouri and back.

In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, F-117 Nighthawks and B-2 Spirits were used, and this was the last time the F-117 would see combat. F-117s dropped satellite-guided strike munitions on selected targets, with high success. B-2 Spirits conducted 49 sorties in the invasion, releasing 1.5 million pounds of munitions.

During the May 2011 operation to kill Osama bin Laden, one of the helicopters used to clandestinely insert U.S. troops into Pakistan crashed in the bin Laden compound. From the wreckage it was revealed this helicopter had stealth characteristics, making this the first publicly known operational use of a stealth helicopter.

Stealth aircraft were used in the 2011 military intervention in Libya, where B-2 Spirits dropped 40 bombs on a Libyan airfield with concentrated air defenses in support of the UN no-fly zone.

Stealth aircraft will continue to play a valuable role in air combat with the United States using the F-22 Raptor, B-2 Spirit, and the F-35 Lightning II to perform a variety of operations. The F-22 made its combat debut over Syria in September 2014 as part of the US-led coalition to defeat ISIS.

From February 2018, Su-57s performed the first international flight as they were spotted landing at the Russian Khmeimim air base in Syria. These Su-57s were deployed along with four Sukhoi Su-35 fighters, four Sukhoi Su-25s, and one Beriev A-50 AEW&C aircraft. It is believed that at least 4 Su-57 are deployed in Syria. and that they have likely been armed with cruise missiles in combat.

In 2018, a report surfaced noting that Israeli F-35I stealth fighters conducted a number of missions in Syria and even infiltrated Iranian airspace without detection. In May 2018, Major General Amikam Norkin of IAF reported that Israeli Air Force F-35I stealth fighters carried out the first-ever F-35 strike in combat over Syria.

The People's Republic of China started flight testing its Chengdu J-20 stealth multirole fighter around in 2011 and made its first public appearance at Airshow China 2016. The aircraft entered service with the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in March 2017. Another fifth-generation stealth multirole fighter from China, the Shenyang FC-31 has undergone flight testing.

Lockheed MartinF-22A Raptor

CHRISTENING CEREMONY - 12 APRIL 2014

The Zumwalt destroyer claims to be a silent and deadly addition to the US Navy's arsenal, and is finally ready for battle after its christening on Saturday at the Bath Iron Works in Maine.

This $3.5-billion bad boy is one of the most technologically advanced boats every built. At 600 feet, the new Zumwalt DDG1000 is twice the size of its aging destroyer peers but requires a crew only half the size because of its robot- like efficiencies, according to Raytheon, the defense contractor that designed its infrastructure. In October, the Navy said it had floated the vessel for the first time, but it was still only 87 percent finished.

Now, the champagne bottle has been cracked over the bow, and it's ready to start hurling long-range missiles at enemy combatants up to 72 miles away. Because it's a stealth destroyer, they'll have no idea what hit them. The ship was designed to lack right angles and protruding pipes and gadgets. Those things are dead giveaways for radar systems, which beam sound waves and listen for the waves to bounce back. Zumwalt's sleek frame foils the echo. It's quiet on the ears, too, because of its electric engine. In that sense, the Zumwalt is like a big floating Toyota Prius with 155 mm guns.

DESCRIPTION

The Zumwalt-class destroyers are a class of United States Navy destroyers designed as multi-mission stealth ships with a focus on land attack. The class is a scaled-back project that emerged after funding cuts to the larger DD-21 vessel program. The program was previously known as the "DD(X)". The class is multi-role and designed for surface warfare, anti-aircraft, and naval fire support. They take the place of battleships in filling the former congressional mandate for naval fire support, though the requirement was reduced to allow them to fill this role. The vessels' appearance has been compared to that of the historic ironclad warship.

The class has a low radar profile; an integrated power system, which can send electricity to the electric drive motors or weapons, which may someday include a railgun or free-electron lasers; total ship computing environment infrastructure, serving as the ship's primary LAN and as the hardware-independent platform for all of the ship's software ensembles; automated fire-fighting systems and automated piping rupture isolation. The class is designed to require a smaller crew and be less expensive to operate than comparable warships. It will have a wave-piercing tumblehome hull form whose sides slope inward above the waterline. This will reduce the radar cross-section, returning much less energy than a more hard-angled hull form. As of January 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that only four out of 12 of the critical technologies were mature.

The lead ship will be named Zumwalt for Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, and carries the hull number DDG-1000. Originally 32 ships were planned, with the $9.6 billion research and development costs spread across the class, but as the quantity was reduced to 10, then 3, the cost-per-ship increased dramatically. The cost increase caused the U.S. Navy to identify the program as being in breach of the Nunn–McCurdy Amendment on 1 February 2010.

Bayview, Idaho (Aug. 23, 2005) - The Advanced Electric Ship Demonstrator (AESD), Sea Jet, funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), is a 133-foot vessel located at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division, Acoustic Research Detachment in Bayview, Idaho. Sea Jet will operate on Lake Pend Oreille, where it will be used for test and demonstration of various technologies. Among the first technologies tested will be an underwater discharge water jet from Rolls-Royce Naval Marine, Inc., called AWJ-21, a propulsion concept with the goals of providing increased propulsive efficiency, reduced acoustic signature, and improved maneuverability over previous Destroyer Class combatants. 

HULL DESIGN - TUMBLEHOME

A return to a hull form not seen since the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the Zumwalt-class destroyer reintroduces the tumblehome hull form. Originally put forth in modern steel battleship designs by the French shipyard Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in La Seyne in Toulon, French naval architects believed that tumblehome, in which the beam of the vessel narrowed from the water-line to the upper deck, would create better freeboard, greater seaworthiness, and, as Russian battleships were to find, would be ideal for navigating through narrow constraints (canals). On the down side, the tumblehome battleships experienced losses in watertight integrity and/or stability problems (especially in high speed turns). 21st century tumblehome is being reintroduced to reduce the radar return of the hull. The inverted bow is designed to cut through waves rather than ride over them. As mentioned above, the stability of this hull form in high sea states has caused debate among naval architects. The tumblehome has not been featured in USN concept designs since the Zumwalt class.

The stability of the DDG-1000 hull design in heavy seas has been a matter of controversy. In April 2007, naval architect Ken Brower said, "As a ship pitches and heaves at sea, if you have tumblehome instead of flare, you have no righting energy to make the ship come back up. On the DDG 1000, with the waves coming at you from behind, when a ship pitches down, it can lose transverse stability as the stern comes out of the water – and basically roll over." The decision to not use a tumblehome hull in the CG(X) cruiser, before the program was canceled, may suggest that there were concerns regarding Zumwalt's seakeeping. However, in a 1/4 scale test of the hull design, named Sea Jet, the tumblehome hull proved seaworthy.

The Advanced Electric Ship Demonstrator (AESD), Sea Jet, funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), is a 133-foot (40-meter) vessel located at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division, Acoustic Research Detachment in Bayview, Idaho. Sea Jet was operated on Lake Pend Oreille, where it was used for test and demonstration of various technologies. Among the first technologies tested was an underwater discharge water jet from Rolls-Royce Naval Marine, Inc., called AWJ-21, a propulsion concept with the goals of providing increased propulsive efficiency, reduced acoustic signature, and improved maneuverability over previous destroyer-class combatants.

STEALTH

Despite being 40% larger than an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer the radar signature is more akin to a fishing boat, according to a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command; sound levels are compared to the Los Angeles-class submarines. The tumblehome hull reduces radar return and the composite material deckhouse also has a low radar return. Water sleeting along the sides, along with passive cool air induction in the mack reduces thermal emissions. Overall, the destroyer's angular build makes it "50 times harder to spot on radar than an ordinary destroyer.

The U.S. Navy solicited bids for a lower cost steel deckhouse as an option for DDG-1002, the last Zumwalt destroyer in January 2013. On 2 August 2013, the US Navy announced it was awarding a $212 million contract to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works to build a steel deckhouse for destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002).

Naval warfare

CONSTRUCTION

In late 2005, the program entered the detailed design and integration phase, for which Raytheon is the Mission Systems Integrator. Both Northrop Grumman Ship Systems and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works share dual-lead for the hull, mechanical, and electrical detailed design. BAE Systems Inc. has the advanced gun system and the MK57 VLS. Almost every major defense contractor (including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine, L-3 Communications) and subcontractors from nearly every state in the U.S. are involved to some extent in this project, which is the largest single line item in the Navy's budget. During the previous contract, development and testing of 11 Engineering Development Models (EDMs) took place: Advanced Gun System, Autonomic Fire Suppression System, Dual Band Radar [X-band and L-band], Infrared, Integrated Deckhouse & Apertures, Integrated Power System, Integrated Undersea Warfare, Peripheral Vertical Launch System, Total Ship Computing Environment, Tumblehome Hull Form.

The decision in September 2006 to fund two ships meant that one could be built by the Bath Iron Works in Maine and one by Northrop Grumman's Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi.

Northrop Grumman was awarded a $90M contract modification for materials and production planning on 13 November 2007. On 14 February 2008, Bath Iron Works was awarded a contract for the construction of the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding was awarded a contract for the construction of USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), at a cost of $1.4 billion each.

On 11 February 2009, full-rate production officially began on the first Zumwalt-class destroyer. Construction on the second ship of the class, Michael Monsoor, began in March 2010. The keel for the first Zumwalt-class destroyer was laid on 17 November 2011. This first vessel was launched from the shipyard at Bath, Maine on 29 October 2013.

PROPULSION

The DDX proposed to use a permanent-magnet motor (PMM) within the hull. An alternate twin pod arrangement was rejected as the ramifications of pod drives would require too much development and validation cost to the vessel. The PMM is considered to be another technology leap and is the cause of some concern (along with the radar system) from Congress. As part of the design phase, Northrop Grumman had built the world's largest permanent magnet motor, designed and fabricated by DRS Technologies. This proposal was dropped when the PMM motor failed to demonstrate that it was ready to be installed in time.

Zumwalt is to have Converteam's Advanced Induction Motors (AIM), rather than DRS Technologies' Permanent Magnet-Synchronous Motors (PMM). The exact choice of engine systems was somewhat controversial. The concept was originally for an integrated power system (IPS) based on in-hull permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMMs), with Advanced Induction Motors (AIM) as a possible backup solution. The design was shifted to the AIM system in February 2005 in order to meet scheduled milestones; PMM technical issues were subsequently fixed, but the program has moved on. The downside is that AIM technology has a heavier motor, requires more space, requires a "separate controller" to be developed to meet noise requirements, and produces one-third the amount of voltage. On the other hand, these very differences will force time and cost penalties from design and construction changes if the program wishes to "design AIM out".

INTEGRATED POWER SYSTEM (IPS)

The Integrated Power System (IPS) is, in some ways, similar to the old turbo-electric drive, the addition of PMMs and integration of all electrical power systems gives ten times the power available on current destroyers. It also reduces the ship's thermal and sound signature. The IPS has added to weight growth in the Zumwalt-class destroyer as noted by the GAO.

AUTOMATION

Automation reduces crew size on these ships: the Zumwalt-class destroyer's minimum compliment is 130, less than half of needed by "similar warships", Smaller crews reduce a major component of operating costs. Ammunition, food, and other stores, are all mounted in containers able to be struck below to magazine/storage areas by an automated cargo handling system.

Water spray or mist systems are proposed for deployment in the Zumwalt-class destroyer but the electronic spaces remains problematic to the designers. Halon/Nitrogen dump systems are preferred but do not work when the space has been compromised by a hull breach. The GAO has noted this system as a potential problem yet to be addressed.

COMPUTER NETWORK

The Total Ship Computing Environment Infrastructure (TSCEI) is based on GE Fanuc Embedded Systems' PPC7A and PPC7D single-board computers running LynuxWorks' LynxOS RTOS. These are contained in 16 shock, vibration and electromagnetic protected Electronic Modular Enclosures.

DINOSAUR TAX DOLLAR DINE OUT

Traditional manned warships are outdated combat weapons that superpowers like to parade about the ocean to demonstrate affluence, in the process polluting the planet massively. The Zumwalt destroyer is a step in the right direction in terms of automation - but still with 100 human lives will be lost in an engagement as a $3.6billion dollar liability. This class of warship has its uses but compared with robot battleships, its size and cost renders it an asset whose loss will hit the US hard, when confronted by ocean going drones such as the Scorpion HK.  It only takes one well aimed torpedo, or one cruise missile to sink a large warship. The larger the conventional warship the more staggering the loss of life - and the blow to the nation concerned. It's a high price to pay for a bit of ocean swagger, however spectacular they look on open days. Stealth is an outdated concept with SeaWolf tactics where a network of drones will soon close on a ship, once it has fired, or otherwise strayed into a patrolled patch of ocean.

Lawmakers and others have questioned whether the Zumwalt-class costs too much and whether it provides the capabilities the U.S. military needs. In 2005 the Congressional Budget Office estimated the acquisition cost of a DD(X) at $3.8–4.0bn in 2007 dollars, $1.1bn more than the navy's estimate.

The National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2007 (Report of the Committee On Armed Services House of Representatives On H.R. 5122 Together With Additional And Dissenting Views) stated the following: “The committee understands there is no prospect of being able to design and build the two lead ships for the $6.6 billion budgeted. The committee is concerned that the Navy is attempting to insert too much capability into a single platform. As a result, the DD(X) is now expected to displace over 14,000 tons and by the Navy’s estimate, cost almost $3.3 billion each. Originally, the Navy proposed building 32 next generation destroyers, reduced that to 24, then finally to 7 in order to make the program affordable. In such small numbers, the committee struggles to see how the original requirements for the next generation destroyer, for example providing naval surface fire support, can be met.”

The Advanced Electric Ship Demonstrator (AESD) in icy waters. Sea Jet was funded by the Office of Naval Research. Without funding from navies, many innovations would never be tried or tested. 

SPECIFICATIONS

AIRCRAFT CARRIER INDEX

Cavour - Italy

Chakri Naruebet - Thailand

Clemenceau - France

Dokdo - Republic Korea

Gerald Ford Class - USA

Hyuga - Japan

Invincible - UK

Kuznetsov - Russia

Liaoning - China

Nimitz - USA

Principe de Asturias - Spain

Queen Elizabeth - UK

Vikrant Class - India

WARSHIPS

Bismarck - Battleship - Germany

HMS Neptune - Leander class cruiser 1941 WWII

Type 23 - Duke class frigate - UK

Type 26 - Global combat ship - UK

Type 45 - Daring class destroyer - UK

Electric prototype - USA

SUBMARINE INDEX

Alvin DSV - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Deepsea Challenger - Mariana Trench, James Cameron 2012

HMS Astute 1st of Class

HMS Vanguard- Trident

INS Sindhurakshak - explosion & sinking

Littoral combat vessels

Lusitania - Torpedo attack

Nuclear submarines lost at sea

Predator - Covert submarine hunter/killer

Seawolf - Autonomous wolf pack deployment of Predator mini-subs

Torpedoes - UUV anti submarine weapons

Trieste - World record depth - Mariana Trench 1960

U20 - Kapitan Leutnant Walther Schwieger

USS Alabama - 

USS Bluefish WWI submarine

USS Bluefish - Nuclear submarine

USS Flying Fish

USS Jimmy Carter - Seawolf class fast attack nuclear submarine

USS Nautilus - 1st nuclear submarine & subsea north pole passage

USS North Dakota - 11th Virginia class submarine 

USS Scorpion - Lost at sea with all hands

Pyramidal Egyptian

Sleek

30 April 2012 - DARPA - SEA SHADOW AUCTION

The Sea Shadow, a high-tech military sea vessel which cost more than $195 million to develop, only received an opening bid for the relatively tiny sum of $50,000, with only a $10,000 deposit required.

The ex-Sea Shadow is now to be disposed of by dismantling and scrapping the vessel within the USA, according to the description on the GSA website. “Dismantling is defined as reducing the property such as it has no value except for its basic material content.” The 164-foot experimental craft was first constructed in 1983 by Lockheed for the U.S. Navy and contains the same stealth technology used by its more famous aerial counterparts. Although it appears almost flimsy on the surface, it actually contains two submerged twin hulls and is specifically designed to withstand very rough ocean waves of up to 18 feet.

The vessel, which is able to evade radar detection due to its angular shape, cost just short of 157 Million dollars to develop. But it is now destined for the scrap heap unless someone takes it off the Navy.

They are/were willing to give away the vessel for free, but interested parties must also accept a submersible dry dock the size of a football pitch as part of the package. Known as the Hughes Mining Barge, it was developed to house the stealth ship and keep it hidden from spy satellites. It also acts as a dry dock and was built to raise a sunken Soviet submarine 35 years ago.

The US Navy has been trying to give away the Sea Shadow since 2006 after Pentagon chiefs said they no longer had any use for it. It wasn’t until 1993 that it became known to the public and caused huge interest when it was first revealed.

At 164ft long the Sea Shadow had a crew of 12 and was capable of 28knots. Its special coatings, sharp angles and other secret attachments allow it to slip under radar and sonar. The strange looking ship was not designed for combat use and was an experimental ship designed by the Lockheed Corporation.

The Sea Shadow was the basis of the ship used in the James Bond film ‘Tomorrow Never Dies” by a mad media mogul intent on world domination. Since 2005 it has been housed in San Diego, California.

Despite its unusual shape few naval museums in the US have expressed an interest in the stealth ship as the US Navy have insisted that the mining barge be included as part of the gift, hence the whole idea becomes rather a liability.

SEAL Ship: Silent But Deadly

Every shipbuilder in the Navy these days talks about how his hulking destroyer or Cold War sub is now going to sneak SEALs onto shore. A couple of weeks back, Military.com overlord Chris Michel was down in San Diego, and saw a pretty cool new prototype ship that's been designed from scratch to handle the mission.

The 89-foot, 60-ton Stiletto will be one of the quickest ships in the fleet, using four Caterpillar C32 engines to cruise at 50 knots or more. It'll also be one of the sneakiest, according to New Scientist.

Stiletto's hull has a double-M shape that channels the wake under the craft. There it mixes with oncoming air to produce froth that lifts the ship part-way out of the water, reducing drag and increasing stability, says Greg Glaros, the programme's leader at the defence department's Office of Force Transformation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimate Weapons - Stealth ship

 

 

 

 

While a crew of three runs the Stiletto, a dozen SEALs can slip off the back of the ship, in an 11-meter rigid inflatable boat -- or they can send a set of flying drones out on spy missions from the upper deck. The ship can stay on station for eight hours while the robots or the special forces are out on their operations. And the Stiletto can keep an even keel while it waits; it's cleared to operate in Sea State 5 -- waves twelve feet high and 157 feet long.

If the Stiletto works out as planned, it'll be good news for special forces. Because while every ship-maker says they've come up with the ideal commando-delivery system, several of the options haven't worked out as planned.

Take the Advanced SEAL Delivery System. "The subs were originally expected to cost $80 million each; the first one alone has cost $446 million," notes the Times-Dispatch. "The vessel was noisier than planned -- bad news for a submarine. Designs were changed to muffle the sound, and now the mini-sub vibrates too much." Which is defnitely not how commandos like to travel.

UPDATE 1:28 PM: Of course, Inside Defense had details on the ship months ago. A few:

* One reason for the unique shape is the ship was designed like an aircraft... OFT’s first director, Arthur Cebrowski, who died last month, was “very firm that we’re going to build an aircraft on the sea"... The hull has four distinct arches, which look like wings, that utilize air pressure to funnel water and glide along the surface.

 

* Through its “maritime data bus,” or on-board computer, the vessel will have the ability to “plug and play” with different sensors, linking with unmanned vehicles and other crafts of varying sizes, he said. With only one panel of windows for looking ahead, Stiletto will use deck cameras to give the crew a sense of what is happening around the ship.

* Production of the Stiletto prototype began in October 2004, costing $6 million in funds from OFT. Nearly the same amount has been earmarked by OFT and SOCOM combined for experimentation and testing.

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE 2:37 pm: As C-Low notes in the comments, the latest issue of Defense Technology International has the Stiletto on the cover.

Latest Comments

Sea Shadow: Stealth Ships

Built by Lockheed in total secrecy inside the famous Hughes Mining Barge, the Sea Shadow is the nautical equivalent of the F-117 "stealth fighter". The Sea Shadow is a SWATH (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull) vessel with all above-water surface sloped radically inward. She is 160 feet long, 70 feet in beam, 14 feet in draft, displaces 560 tons and her diesel-electric propulsion gives her a top speed of 13 knots. She is invisible to shipboard radar, even at close range.

A source who has seen some of the final sequences of the 007 movie describes the mysterious ship Bond must slip aboard to complete his mission.

The stealth ship that 007 NEWS first reported looks like the one Lockheed Martin developed for the the US Navy. The ship's angular design allows for it to have a low radar signature making it almost undetectable by enemy radar.

There is a full scale model of the underneath of the ship at Pinewood Studios where the production is currently filming.

Exterior full size shots of the stealth ship were filmed earlier this summer at the tanks in Rosarito, Mexico which were also used in the filming of Titanic. Apparently the 6ft model used in those sequences has heavier armor and is more weathered looking, but is basically the same as the Sea Shadow, states the source.

The 007 stage at Pinewood Studios houses the set for the interior of the stealth ship as well as the place where Bond manages to break into the boat, writes the source.

The source says that the set and the entire stealth ship sequences look very cool. The rest of us will just have to wait until the movie comes out -- December 19th in the US and December 12th in the UK.

Solar Navigator MKII solar powered SWATH vessel You've got to be kidding - a solar powered stealth ship. Perhaps the marine drone of the future.

Please Note: The Solar Navigator designs are not true Stealth Ships.  The solar swing wing concept has undergone continuous design, development and testing since 1995.   Each new season our team incorporate improvements into an updated test bed model for evaluation purposes.  Every effort is made to accurately reflect the latest amendments on this site.  However, the specification of the final vessel is subject to change without notice. This is not a military vessel, but due to its ability to operate continuously without refueling and with some relatively simple autonomous electronic wizardry, this could very well be the ultimate unmanned surveillance stealth ship of the future with self defence capability.

STEALTH SUBMARINE

The Predator is designed to neutralize submarines at sea by sinking them silently and in such manner that the navy concerned would not know how they'd lost their boats. The Predator is therefore a stealth vessel. The delivery system and onboard weapon is classified, but the specification of the mini-sub itself uses off the shelf technology that is well publicized.

A Predator is good value for any Navy that wants to level the playing field and is operating on a budget. A nuclear submarine is worth $billions, representing a significant investment - that is a double edged sword. For although a large modern nuclear submarine is a formidable fighting machine and a visible deterrent, once such a warship is sunk, that leaves a big hole in any fleet. Aircraft carriers and indeed, any type of warship at sea is also a vulnerable target and may be neutralised for a little over $2 million - not much more than the cost of a modern torpedo. The question is then why would you keep a fleet of vulnerable ships at sea, apart from the feel good factor. The days of spectacular broadside engagements are over. Much as we like a good 2nd World War film on the subject, these days it's no big guns, but big ideas that win battles.

Unlike a torpedo which may miss its target, a Predator mini-submarine is initially guided by sensitive electronics, then confirmed by the pilot submariner. The method of sinking can be tailored to the target craft. Overt operations will succeed, but covert stealth operations may be more effective.

SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team SDV 2 USS Navy Hawaii

THE GHOST TWIN HULL SWATH STEALTH BOAT BY JULIET MARINE SYSTEMS

The GHOST is the product of Juliet Marine Systems' think tank approach to perceived problems. In this case it is force protection against the threat of piracy using small vessel terrorist tactics against coalition ships in certain prone areas of the world. This has been identified as a clear and present danger, if Mr Clancy will forgive us.

The GHOST is a high speed response craft powered by gas turbines. It's twin submerged hulls are supercavitating, which is claimed to reduce water drag (skin friction) significantly.

Like many navies, the US Navy is going through a period of change. 

Historic military tactics have been shown to be wanting, after the low tech vessel attack with conventional explosives (October 12, 2000) against the USS Cole. 17 sailors were killed and 39 more wounded 

The hydrodynamics of the GHOST surface vessel's twin submerged buoyant tubular foils are claimed to be a test bed for Juliet Marine's next planned prototype: a long duration UUV.


PORTSMOUTH NEW HAMPSHIRE AUGUST 10 2011

Juliet Marine Systems, Inc. (JMS) announced in 2011 that the US Navy/USPTO have removed Secrecy Orders previously applied to GHOST. For the first time, Juliet Marine is able to release photographs of GHOST, the first super-cavitating craft, to the public. GHOST was designed and built by US Citizens for the US Navy at no cost to the government to protect US sailors, servicemen and servicewomen.

Development of the first ever super-cavitating craft, in many ways, is as difficult as breaking the sound barrier. GHOST is a combination aircraft/boat that has been designed to fly through an artificial underwater gaseous environment that creates 900 times less hull friction than water. GHOST technology adapts to manned or unmanned, surface or submerged applications.

Any Navy possessing GHOST technology could operate in international waters undetected and would have an overwhelming advantage against conventional ships. GHOST is specifically designed for Fleet Force Protection at its present size. GHOST technology is scalable and JMS is currently discussing a plan to build a larger Corvette-sized vessel (150 feet) by partnering with a large international defense company. 

The US Navy could reduce its Naval footprint and financial exposure by deploying a squadron of GHOSTs from Bahrain, which would free up larger assets, such as destroyers and cruisers, saving costs in manpower and maintenance. GHOST is ideal for piracy patrols and could be sea-based to provide protection from pirate attacks that cost our government an estimated $1.5 billion each year. The world-wide shipping industry could be provided with substantial fuel savings using JMS hull friction reduction super-cavitation.

A squadron of GHOSTs would not be detectable to seeking enemy ship radar and sensors. GHOST can carry thousands of pounds of weapons, including Mark 48 torpedoes, and would be virtually unstoppable. The GHOST platform and technology could reduce the need for LCS completely with the capability to travel long distances and conduct the same missions. GHOST could make LCS a defensible platform for combat - LCS is not currently rated for combat. Today, Iran has the capabilities to stop the US Navy from operating in the Straits of Hormuz, a critical passage for most of the oil our country uses.

The Navy compares GHOST to an attack helicopter with regard to its capabilities for force protection. GHOST can deliver forces to any beach location quickly and quietly with enough weapons to conduct a hot extraction. GHOST is designed to provide military game changing advantages for the USA

THE CHAIRMAN

Juliet Marine Systems' Chairman is Gregory E. Sancoff. He is a successful inventor and management specialist who has successfully started or turned around every company he has been associated with over the past 31 years. 

He has served in executive positions including President/CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, in all companies he has founded or acquired. Previous company involvement includes: Block Design/Block Medical, IVAC, and ONUX Medical.

Sancoff, 55, is a prolific inventor and serial entrepreneur who, reportedly, takes engineering magazines to bed. He grew up in a military family and went to high school in Lawrence, MA. As a kid, he lived on Army bases and says he remembers saluting the flag when he got out of the car. Sancoff never served in the military, but that’s probably because he was too busy inventing stuff.

He started his first company when he was 18 - a machine shop for doing rapid device-prototyping for other businesses. He sold that and headed west to San Diego in 1982, at age 25. As a consultant, he became an expert in medical devices, including systems for delivering intravenous fluids, collecting health data, and other applications. He started a new company, Block Medical, and sold it for $80 million in 1991. His next company, River Medical, was based around a new kind of drug-delivery device for hospitals. River acquired IVAC, a medical-device firm divested from Eli Lilly, and ended up being sold to Advanced Medical (IMED) for $400 million in 1995.

CONTACTS

Amanda Morin, Corporate Communications
info@julietmarine.com
603-319-8412
http://www.julietmarine.com/index.html

Portsmouth, NH

Juliet Marine will not meet with individuals or companies without:

1. A signed Juliet Marine Systems, Inc. confidentiality agreement
2. Confirmation of identity and citizenship
3. Agreement on meeting agenda

REX RESEARCH - GREGORY SANCOFF - JULIET MARINE'S STEALTH STARTUP GEARS UP FOR WAR

About an hour north of Boston, in a city by the sea, there’s a project underway to reinvent the marine industry. More specifically, the marine defense industry.

Imagine a boat that moves through the water differently from any other boat in existence. It uses “supercavitation” — the creation of a gaseous bubble layer around the hull to reduce friction underwater — to reach very high speeds at relatively low fuel cost. Its speed and shape means it can evade detection by sonar or ship radar. It can outrun torpedoes. Its fuel efficiency means it has greater range and can run longer missions than conventional boats and helicopters.

Now imagine that this vessel has already been built and tested. It “flies” through the water more or less the way it was designed to - like a high-tech torpedo, except part of the craft is above water - and it can be maneuvered like a fighter plane. “It’s almost as much an aircraft as it is a boat,” says its inventor, Gregory Sancoff, the founder and CEO of Juliet Marine Systems, a private company in Portsmouth, NH.

The vehicle, dubbed the “Ghost,” is the first of its kind and is garnering attention from organizations like the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, defense contractors, and foreign governments - as well as hackers in foreign countries, who are presumably trying to figure out how it works. Juliet Marine Systems has received about $10 million in total funding, about half of which comes from its founder and private investors. The startup’s institutional investor is Avalon Ventures, a VC firm with offices in the San Diego and Boston areas.

Until recently, the project was kept under wraps because of secrecy orders from the federal government. But this summer, Sancoff says, the Ghost - which looks like something out of Star Trek (see photos) -will be ready for prime-time deployment. His team of 16 employees is working on integrating weapons and sensors for military missions. “We have a fully functional, basically go-to-war boat right now,” Sancoff says.

The question is, does it really work? And, more to the point, can it be used for missions safely, reliably, and effectively? If the answer is yes - and that’s a big if, from an outside perspective - one could imagine a squadron of Ghosts being deployed to the Persian Gulf, say, to defend warships and other interests against “swarm” attacks by small boats, Sancoff says. The vessel also could be used against pirate attacks, for Coast Guard rescue missions, or to transport workers to and from oil platforms. The technology might have much broader uses, too - in global cargo shipping, for example, to reduce fuel costs, or for commercial jet skis. (Wacky as it is, the concept is not as far-fetched as, say, a submarine that can also fly.)

But to get a better sense of the ship’s real prospects—and the company’s—let’s consider the whole story.

FROM MEDICAL TO MARINE TECH

Sancoff, 55, is a prolific inventor and serial entrepreneur who, I’m told, takes engineering magazines to bed. He grew up in a military family and went to high school in Lawrence, MA. As a kid, he lived on Army bases and says he remembers saluting the flag when he got out of the car. Sancoff never served in the military, but that’s probably because he was too busy inventing stuff.

He started his first company when he was 18 - a machine shop for doing rapid device-prototyping for other businesses. He sold that and headed west to San Diego in 1982, at age 25. As a consultant, he became an expert in medical devices, including systems for delivering intravenous fluids, collecting health data, and other applications. He started a new company, Block Medical, and sold it for $80 million in 1991. His next company, River Medical, was based around a new kind of drug-delivery device for hospitals. River acquired IVAC, a medical-device firm divested from Eli Lilly, and ended up being sold to Advanced Medical (IMED) for $400 million in 1995.

Sancoff’s next big project was to start Onux Medical, a surgical tech company based in New Hampshire. It was there, in 2000, that he first got inspiration for Juliet Marine and the Ghost ship. Sancoff was sitting in a conference room when he heard the U.S.S. Cole had been attacked off the coast of Yemen by a small boat loaded with explosives. Seventeen U.S. sailors had been killed and many more wounded. He sat there in disbelief as he realized a billion-dollar warship had nearly been sunk by a couple of guys in a raft.

Juliet Marine would derive its name from a U.S. Navy “war games” exercise held in 2002. At $250 million, it was the most expensive exercise in Naval history. “Fleet Battle Experiment - Juliet” involved warships parked off the coast of California and a series of simulated small-boat attacks. The results of the simulation were grim: more than 20,000 deaths and massive losses to the fleet, in a Persian Gulf scenario. Yet, Sancoff says, the Navy hasn’t done anything in the past 10 years to guard against such attacks, other than work on targeted rocket systems.

“When you’re an entrepreneur, there has to be an overwhelming reason why you do it,” Sancoff says. “That was it for me.”

He saw a big opportunity - if only he could design a ship fast enough and maneuverable enough to intercept attackers before they could get close to big ships or shorelines. He had raced hydroplanes as a teenager - probably could bulls-eye womp rats, too (sorry, Star Wars joke) - so he had an intuitive feel for what it might take.

Which brings us to supercavitation. It’s an old idea. During the Cold War, the Russians developed a torpedo called the Shkval (“squall”) that could go more than 200 mph — five times as fast as a conventional torpedo — using a rocket engine and air ejected in front to produce a gaseous bubble completely enveloping the projectile. That reduces the friction between the hull and its surroundings by a factor of about 900, enabling superfast travel. Yet rocket-propelled torpedoes have downsides in performance and reliability; the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk in 2000 is rumored to have been caused by a malfunctioning Shkval.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy and others reportedly have been working on a next-generation supercavitating torpedo since at least the 1990s. And in recent years, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ran a program, called Underwater Express, to design a supercavitating submarine. There is also interest in using the concept to improve fuel efficiency for oil tankers, ferries, and other large ships, typically by creating air bubbles at the front of the hull. As of yet, however, nobody has publicly demonstrated a successful supercavitating craft.

To that end, after leaving Onux (which was bought by Bard in 2004), Sancoff spent several years doing research on his own and incorporated Juliet Marine in 2008. By June of last year, using $5 million of mostly his own money, his team had built a fully functioning prototype — Sancoff prefers the term “pre-production” vehicle. And earlier this year, he secured an additional $5 million from Avalon Ventures, the VC firm that invested in his last two companies.

At a Bay Area event in March, Kevin Kinsella, the Avalon partner on the deal, spoke glowingly of River Medical in particular. “We got 10x [return] in 18 months, and I only had to go to four meetings. An ROI of 2.5x per board meeting is fantastic,” he said. (Onux didn’t cash out quite as well, but it still worked out fine.)

After seeing firsthand what Juliet Marine built with $5 million, Kinsella said, “If you were taken around by a handler from Lockheed or Grumman or Northrop or any of them, and they told you, ‘We developed this on $150 million,’ you wouldn’t bat an eye.” He told the story of a meeting with Avalon and its fund investors. Someone asked Sancoff, “How did you get to be so capital efficient in your company?” Kinsella relays, “He leaned on the podium and said, ‘Because it was my money.’”


NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER'S BOAT

OK, so here’s how it works, according to a patent filing (see diagram, below). The main compartment of the Ghost vessel, which houses the cockpit and controls, sits above the water in between two torpedo-shaped pontoons or “foils,” which are submerged and create all the buoyancy and propulsion for the craft. The angle of the struts that connect the foils to the command module is adjustable — so the craft can ride high in choppy seas and at high speeds (so waves don’t hit the middle part), and low in calm water and at lower speeds.

“We’re basically riding on two supercavitating torpedoes. And we’ve put a boat on top of it,” Sancoff says.

At the front of each foil is a special propeller system that pulls the craft forward. The propellers are powered by a modified gas turbine — a jet engine — housed in each foil; the air intake and exhaust ports for the engines are in the struts. As the ship moves through the water, the motion of the propellers creates a thin layer of bubbly water vapor that surrounds each foil from front to back, helped along by the presence of “air trap fins” that keep the vapor in contact with the hull (and keep liquid away from the hull). The vapor is what constitutes the supercavitation, so the foils can glide effortlessly through the bubbles.

“The key is the propulsion. You have to have a lot of power at the right location in this vessel,” Sancoff says. Exactly how this is done is a trade secret. But the propulsion system, which he says generates 30 percent more thrust than any other propeller-based system, essentially “boils water underwater and generates steam vapor.” (I take this to mean the pressure directly behind the propeller blades is so low that the liquid water there “boils” off and becomes a gas—hence the bubbles.)

After doing some digging in the literature, I asked Sancoff whether what’s in the patent filing is really how it works — in terms of how the Ghost creates its mysterious supercavitation. His answer: “No.” (OK, so there’s more to the story here. But you know when you’re supercavitating, he says, because the engine efficiency actually improves as you go faster.)

In any case, the overall design makes the craft go fast, but Sancoff isn’t making any public claims yet about exactly how fast. “We don’t talk about speed, how many weapons [it can carry], or how far we can go,” he says. Yet its rumored speed is at least 80-100 knots — over 100 mph. That’s not going to challenge the top speedboat records — there have been hydroplane efforts (riding on the water surface) that have exceeded 200 mph (174 knots) and even 300 mph (261 knots), some with fatal results - but the Ghost is faster than any previous underwater vehicle, Sancoff says.

What’s more, he says, the Ghost provides a much smoother ride than what Navy SEALs are used to; many of them blow out their backs from the bumpiness of their boats, he says. “Our boat does not have impact from the waves. We cut through the wave,” Sancoff says. “That is critical science.”

Hydrodynamics experts I’ve talked to say the main challenges of such a craft are controlling it, stabilizing it, and making it quiet. Going superfast in a straight line might be doable, they say, but any sort of turning or maneuvering must be done very carefully, because if the bubble layer distorts or breaks down at high speeds, tremendous water forces will come to bear on the foils, which can be catastrophic.

To steer itself through the water and maintain stability, the Ghost uses four movable flaps on the front of each foil and four on the back of each foil, for a total of 16 flaps. (The flaps reach through the thin bubble layer into the surrounding water.) The struts are adjusted to keep the command module out of the water, and the foils stay submerged, so waves at the water surface should only hit the struts, which have a small cross-section.

“It’s computer controlled, like a modern F-18,” Sancoff says. “We’re boring what looks like two wormholes underwater, and we’re flying through foam.” Sancoff himself has been test-driving the ship over the past couple of years. “I have been learning an entirely new craft since then. It’s a totally new experience,” he says. “Just because you drive Grandpa’s boat, you’re not going to drive this one. It’s more like a helicopter.”

As for the craft’s audio profile, Sancoff is proud of its “silent propulsion” system that includes a sophisticated muffler system for the engines. You can’t hear it from 50 feet away, he says.

COMING OUT OF THE NIGHT

With any grand invention like this, some outside experts are going to be skeptical. “I wouldn’t say it’s not going to work. But I have concerns,” says Gary Balas, head of the department of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Minnesota. Balas is an expert in flight and underwater control systems, but his main objection is that the propulsion system of the Ghost, with its forward propellers, is very unusual for a supercavitating craft. The typical approach, as in the Russian torpedo, is to propel the craft from behind and eject gas and/or use a blunt shape in the front to create an air cavity around the craft. “I don’t see how they’ll achieve what they expect to achieve,” Balas says. “And I don’t see how they’ll control the altitude and the yaw of the vehicle.”

His colleague, Roger Arndt, also a professor at the University of Minnesota, is an expert in fluid flow and cavitation. He has doubts about the Ghost propulsion method as well. In fact, cavitation bubbles are normally bad for propellers and can cause serious damage. But there is a type of propeller, with wedge-shaped blades, that produces supercavitation in high-speed racing boats; presumably this is similar to Ghost’s propellers. But in this case, Arndt says, “I am dubious about the application of supercavitating propellers.” (To be fair, Sancoff said that what’s in the patent filing isn’t quite how it works.)

Other experts on supercavitation declined to comment for this article. Sancoff emphasizes that the project has a lot of sensitive aspects to it, in terms of national security, so people who know about it aren’t talking. And he claims that Juliet Marine’s website is getting “attacked” 350 times a month by hackers, mostly in foreign countries.

In any case, the current vehicle — which resides under tight security at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (“a great asset” for a startup to be able to rent space in, he says) — holds 18 people and weighs some 60,000 pounds fully loaded; the underwater part of the vessel is 62 feet long. Sancoff says it can be launched from any beach. “A group of these boats coming out of the night in the Persian Gulf, armed with torpedoes, would be undetectable to large ships,” he says. “Ghost cannot be hit by a torpedo. You would have to shoot it with a gun.”

Not surprisingly, Sancoff sees an urgent military need for his craft. The Navy loses sleep about swarm attacks and security in the Strait of Hormuz (which runs between Iran, United Arab Emirates, and Oman) and other strategic waterways, he says. Yet it hasn’t moved quickly enough to do anything about the threats. “We talk with the Navy weekly,” he says. “We believe the U.S. could use a hundred of these boats right away.” At a price of $20 million per boat — fully loaded with electronics, radar, and so forth — that “provides us with a billion-dollar market opportunity for coastal and fleet protection,” he says.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department has granted Juliet Marine permission to talk with the governments of Israel and UAE, which both have marine security concerns. The company says it is currently building a manufacturing facility near Portsmouth, in anticipation of ramping up to sell Ghost ships to customers. Sancoff adds that Juliet Marine is planning to build two more versions of the ship this fall, using what he calls “the final configuration.”

And while the startup strives to gain full acceptance from the U.S. Navy and other potential defense customers, it is “working on weaponizing” the craft, says Sancoff. “The vehicle’s done. Now it’s time to get mission modules complete.” That means mounting torpedoes, machine guns, radar, mine-detection systems, and other sensors onto the craft — and making sure it all works the way it’s supposed to.

That remains to be seen, of course. But if it performs as advertised, Juliet Marine could end up playing a vital role in global security on the high seas. “That’s the beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur,” says Sancoff. “You take a risk with it.”



FRIDAY FEBRUARY 24 2012 - NEW HAMPSHIRE ENTREPRENEUR CALL TO ACTION

'We plan to build a major company here,' says Greg Sancoff, founder of Juliet Marine Systems.

When entrepreneur Greg Sancoff takes his watercraft out for a test drive on the Piscataqua River, the 75-foot long vessel draws quizzical looks from people who see it. There are good reasons for the double-take stares.

The sleekly angled, supercavitating Ghost looks like it just arrived from the set of a Hollywood science fiction movie. In reality, the Ghost has the potential to play a vital role in protecting American Navy vessels in volatile regions of the world, such as the current, headline-making tensions in the Persian Gulf.

Ghost is a high-speed attack craft - Sancoff calls it a modern version of the PT Boat - specifically designed to protect vital waterways like the Straits of Hormuz and to counter threats to commercial shipping, such as piracy, which is increasing in many areas of the world.

Sancoff says the Ghost has been compared to an attack helicopter on the water. "Ghost would be a very important and cost-effective security tool to exert a constant presence in this troubled region," he said.

For almost three decades as a successful entrepreneur in the medical devices industry, Sancoff was accustomed to taking risks. He has founded and sold four companies totaling more than $100 million. But his latest venture, Portsmouth-based Juliet Marine Systems, required a combination investment of patriotism, personal finances and innovative research and development far beyond anything he had done before.

"By far this is the most fulfilling thing I have ever done," Sancoff said.

FAST & FUEL EFFICIENT

What makes the Ghost unique is that it was developed entirely on spec in less than four years, unprecedented for a potential "game-changing" defense technology, he said.

While other weapons and defense industry programs get government approval and research funding and then embark on lengthy development and deployment process, Juliet Marine Systems bypassed all of that.

"It was the fastest way to get it done. We didn't get involved with government research institutions because it would have slowed us down," Sancoff said of his personal multimillion-dollar backing of the Ghost. "Look at Silicon Valley and the most efficient way to develop new technology. We did this in a think tank environment just as companies like Apple do."

Juliet Marine Systems created and built the Ghost prototypes in secrecy at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard with only 10 full-time engineers and scientists.

The Ghost could have been deployed already if the federal government had not put a secrecy order in place for more than 18 months on some of Juliet Marine's patents. Sancoff said this prevented extensive testing during that time because the craft couldn't be seen in public.

Despite the delay, Sancoff has built it and the Navy and maritime industry have come to see it.

What they are seeing is a very fast, fuel-efficient craft that can barely be detected by radar and can stay on patrol for a very long time (because it's now classified material, Sancoff can't say exactly how fast the craft can go and how long it can go between refueling its gas turbine jet engines.)

It's fast because it has been designed to fly through an artificial underwater gaseous environment that creates 900 times less hull friction than water. Sancoff also said the Ghost has 22 special systems that give the craft stability.

Juliet Marine is currently in discussions with defense companies to implement an off-the-shelf weapons solution. In keeping with his entrepreneurial roots, Sancoff will not make it a overthought process.

"We do not have to reinvent the wheel," he said. "There are several systems today that would provide ample power and fit the mission characteristics."

CALL TO ACTION

During a recent visit to the Pentagon, a high-ranking naval research officer asked Sancoff, "Why did you do this?"

For Sancoff, it was a decades-long journey of finding a solution and "giving something back to my country."

The genesis, Sancoff explained, came in October 2000 when the naval destroyer USS Cole was attacked and 17 sailors killed by an explosive-laden small craft guided by al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen. He became focused on a solution for fleet security from attacks that are akin to land-based IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, provided another burst of motivation. Finally, there was a major naval fleet exercise in 2002 to determine security from small boat attacks. The exercise was code-named Juliet, which provided the name for Sancoff's company, and the result showed too many vulnerabilities.

"This was my call to action," he said.

He said he began to do voluminous research, and when he sold his Hampton-based company, Onux Medical, in 2004, it became his full-time quest to create a new type of company to work at rapid deployment speed.

"My wife Jennifer talked about this extensively. The idea was so strong that we decided to go forward and develop these ideas," Sancoff said about the decision to finance the multimillion-dollar startup with their money. "I have been very successful and wanted to give something back to my country."

The company was officially started in late 2007, and major research and development began in 2008 after the space at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was secured. "We have a very small team of people, and they are very smart at what they do. This has allowed us to have such a rapid turnaround time," Sancoff said.

The company's board members include two retired U.S. Navy admirals and former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu of New Hampshire. Sancoff said construction of the Ghost was enhanced by the work of many regional machine shops, and he believes the Seacoast region should become the site for manufacture of the Ghost and other marine-related systems.

In fact, the company has begun to add its engineering and scientific staff in anticipation of both commercial and military contracts for the Ghost.

"It's up to them (users) just how fast they want to adapt this new technology," Sancoff said. "We have been in discussions about making a 150-foot version. There are so many applications, even down to pleasure craft size. We plan to build a major company here."

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WWIII3 Cyber Nuclear Holocaust is an original John Storm political thriller.

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