U.S Navy Giving Away James Bond Stealth Ship

Posted February 27th, 2009

The Sea Shadow stealth ship, once a top secret pride and joy of the Navy, that cost over $160 million to develop, is now being given away for free to any interested parties. Few naval museums have expressed interest though, as the ship also comes with a mandatory submersible dry dock the size of a football pitch.

The Sea Shadow was the basis for the stealth ship set used in 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies with Pierce Brosnan, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Pryce. Production Designer Allan Cameron would have had a field day if they'd offered this back in 1997, although it might have actually been cheaper to build the set than to dispose of the dry dock that comes along with 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.

The vessel was originally built in 1985, and could make 28 knots. It was 164 feet long and had a crew of 12. Suddenly Tomorrow Never Dies seems a bit outdated when they can't even give this monster away.

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