Worlds MOST FEARED naval ship US Navy Zumwalt Class sea trials
The US Navy Zumwalt class naval ship has just started sea trials and may become the most feared naval ship in the world.
The United States Navy (
USN) is the naval service branch of the
United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the
United States.
The
M80 Stiletto is a prototype naval ship manufactured by the M
Ship Company as an operational experiment for
The Pentagon's
Office of Force Transformation. It is notable for its Pentamaran hull design and carbon fiber construction, as well as its networked architecture.
The M80 Stiletto is a
U.S. Navy vessel designed for combat in littoral waters. It takes the name from the
Italian Stiletto, a short knife or dagger.
The 88-foot (27 m) long vessel has a notable hull design, an M-shaped hull that provides a stable yet fast platform for mounting electronic surveillance equipment or weapons, or for conducting special operations. The hull design does not require foils or lifting devices to achieve a smooth ride at high speeds in rough conditions. Its shallow draft means the M80 Stiletto can operate in littoral and riverine environments and potentially allows for beach landings. The faceted design suggests that the vessel has a low radar signature (i.e., stealth) in the frontal aspect and somewhat so from the sides.
The M80 Stiletto is equipped with four
Caterpillar, Inc. C32 1232 kW (1652 HP) engines yielding a top speed in excess of 50 knots (90 km/h) and a range of
500 nautical miles (900 km) when fully loaded. It can be outfitted with jet drives for shallow water operations and beaching.
It has a topside flight deck for launching and retrieving
UAVs and a rear ramp that can launch and recover an 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boat (
RIB) or
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (
AUV).
It weighs 45 tons unloaded, light enough that it can be hoisted onto a cargo ship, while still able to carry up to 20 tons of cargo. The ship is 88.6 feet (27.0 m) in length, with a width of 40 feet (12 m) and a height of 18.5 feet (
5.6 m), yet has a draft of only 2.5 feet (0.8 m).
The M80 Stiletto is the largest
U.S. naval vessel built using carbon-fiber composite and epoxy building techniques, which yields a very light but strong hull. The prototype M80 Stiletto is expected to be in use in less than one year.
Ships are expected to cost between $6 and $
10 million.
Historically, ships have evolved to become narrower and deeper to achieve speed and stability.
The M Hull however become wider, because its distinctively wide hull captures the vessel's bow wave and redirects the energy under the hull. The Stiletto's double-M hull enables the craft to achieve an unequaled ride in rough seas at high speed, which is critical for the
Navy SEALS and other
Special Operations Forces, because it reduces the G-forces and related injuries these personnel are subjected to during training and on missions.
The Stiletto is being tested by the
United States Navy SEALs and
Special Warfare Combat Crewmen, who operate small, fast craft in the rough littoral seas for which the vessel was designed.
In
2006 and
2007, the Stiletto participated in
Trident Warrior exercises, as well as a number of other naval exercises. This included three days of mine-clearing experimentation during
Exercise Howler in 2006, when the vessel was operated by the Naval
Special Clearance Team-1 (NSCT-1) from the Naval
Amphibious Base in
Coronado.
A key feature of this vessel is that it can set up a network between a special forces team by launching an unmanned aerial vehicle (
UAV) that relays information between the team and boat. The Stiletto can also carry surveillance UAVs to provide reconnaissance for the
SEAL team, and, using a clustered supercomputer on board, will be able to send real-time images to the team on shore.
The Stiletto was selected by
Time magazine as one of the
Best Inventions of 2006 and one of two inventions in the
Armed Forces category.[1] San Diego-based
CONNECT named the M80 Stiletto as the Most Innovative New
Product for 2006 in the
General Technology category.
In 2008, the Stiletto deployed on a 70 day mission for
USSOUTHCOM as part of a joint agency operation that included the
Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S.
Coast Guard.[2]
In July
2012, the
US Navy deployed a Stiletto to retrieve the
NASA Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment 3 (IRVE-3) test article[3] with 3 m (9.8 ft) diameter heat shield which splashed down in the
Atlantic Ocean off
North Carolina after being launched on July 23 by a sounding rocket from NASA's
Wallops Flight Facility. The Stiletto is referred to as a maritime demonstration craft operated by the
Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock,
Combatant Craft Division, and based at
Joint Expeditionary Base
Little Creek-Ft
Story, Va.[4]
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is larger than the next 13 largest navies combined in terms