Ghost. The Stealth Speedboat

[longknife]

All I can say is – Wow!


Read story @ Star Wars at sea 10m X-Wing stealth speedboat Mail Online

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - we need `em so's we can sneak up onna Commies an' Chinamens...

Stealth Subs 'Absolutely Essential' for US Military
May 27, 2016 — One of America’s greatest threats to outsiders is 171 meters long and four stories high and can be completely submerged underwater, free to roam the seas in secrecy.

The Ohio-class SSBN submarine, carrying a payload of Trident II nuclear missiles, is what Secretary of Defense Ash Carter this week called “absolutely essential”. The vessels, strategically positioned around the globe, each carry up to two dozen ballistic missiles that can take out targets up to 7,400 kilometers away. "This is the most important weapon system that we have as far as strategic security, because nobody knows where it is, it always works and it's always on watch," Sonar Technician Senior Chief Jarrad Hampton said during a VOA visit to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay near St. Marys, Georgia, which is home to six SSBN subs.

Nuclear triad

Officials argue these subs are the foremost prong of the nuclear triad, a term used to describe America’s ability to launch a nuclear weapons attack by air, land or sea. Strategic bomber jets and land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles make up the first two prongs. Fourteen SSBN submarines filled with hundreds of Trident II missiles make up the third prong of the triad, giving the U.S. the ability to strike anywhere, any place, at any time.

A U.S. Navy crew stands on the USS Michigan, an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine, as it prepares to dock at Subic Freeport, a former US naval base west of Manila, Philippines, March 25, 2014. The sub was on a routine port call.​

Navy Captain Greg Hicks, a spokesman for the military’s top general, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joe Dunford, said the weapons system prevents offensive first strikes that could be crippling to the United States. “It provides our country a basis in which we can say, ‘If you do harm to us, we will do harm to you,’ ” Hicks said.

The Ohio-class submarines’ mobility and ability to disappear beneath the ocean surface is matched by the Trident II missile's reliability. “Every time that we've gone out to do an evaluation,” Hampton said, “it goes exactly where it's supposed to go.” “They are the number one thing that keeps our nation secure,” Hicks added.

Aging fleet