Scrap heap may be last stop for secret slice of Navy history
By Matt Weiser
A secret chapter in American naval research could soon reach an ignoble close when a rusty barge and its once-classified contents leave Suisun Bay for the scrap heap.
Slipping through the sea like a black mirage on catamaran legs, the 164-foot Sea Shadow looks like something Darth Vader might fly. It is the world's only ship built to be invisible, assembled secretly in Redwood City in 1985 by the U.S. Navy and contractor Lockheed Martin at an estimated cost of $50 million.
Sea Shadow's purpose was to test radar-cloaking technology and other naval engineering innovations. Many of its breakthroughs can be seen in present-day Navy warships.
Even at nearly 30 years old, Sea Shadow remains the most radical ship afloat.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/29/4450648/scrap-heap-may-be-last-stop-for.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
from 1999... Was it declassified by then?
edit for pic
I drove past the Glomar Explorer and the barge for years when they were moored just east of the Carquinez bridge. I had no idea what was in the barge.
