The IX-529 "Sea Shadow": The Stealth Ship That Revolutionized Naval Warfare 

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Towards the end of my Navy career I followed the Shadow. I remember one test where the seeeking airplane radioed to the Shadow, asking if they had gone back to the pier, because they hadn't located the Shadow. They replied, Nope, you've flown over us six times, your'e dead, six times.

While on a Reserve weekend in SD Myself and four of my shipmates were at the pier where she was tied up, marveling at the oddness of it... and for some lucky damned reason the engineer at the dock invited us aboard! It was as crude as an experimental vessel could be, spartan in the crew accommodations and litter with tools, instruments, and long wires harnesses... totally opposite from the smooth sleek exterior. You would expect it to be like a spacecraft inside but it was more like a cobbled together homebuilt design. They explained that because it was not intended to deploy but to be a research platform that none of the systems was designed to be pretty, just accessible and functional. The view from the bridge was crazy because you saw no real bow in front of you (like looking out the cockpit windows in a plane) and yet there was a whole ship behind you, so it seemed to just drop off and was a long ways down. Went into the engine nacelle on the port side via a very narrow ladder inside the blade that connected the ship and the engine pod. Have to admit it freaked me out. I have the picture they gave us when we went ashore and still am amazed at that rare opportunity and the way it "just happened"... The only way it could have been better was to have had them throw the lines and take us out for a day of stealth sailing!

In Steve Rich's book skunk works, he did detail one flaw the vessel had. It was TOO good. Scan the water looking at the ocean waves and look for the negative space. There's your ship. But you really had to be looking for it specifically. Super cool though, like pretty much everything skunk works did.

Projects like these definitely fall into the category of "no known descendants _that we know of_". I feel like it's quite likely that the concept was so successful that further development needed to be taken back into the shadows.

In 1997, Elliot Carver used this very ship to try and bring the UK and China to war. Luckily James Bond saved the day.

I remember seeing Sea Shadow going in and out of port when i was Stationed at Point Loma in San Diego. It was a really cool ship.

My dad worked on a support boat out of San Pedro in the 90s. They would ferry the naval techs out to San Nicholas Island for the initial radar cross-section tests. He wasn't allowed to talk about his deployment for like 6 months that year. It was pretty wild to see it in a Bond film a couple years later.

I heard recently someone invented a super efficient tunnel bore. I'm told it was *"ground breaking"*

It doesn't surprise that the US Navy bureaucracy did not think a sonar stealthy submarine was worth it. I seem to remember Admiral Rickover had a rough time with that same bureaucracy when he proposed powering submarines with nuclear energy.

Even if failed in every step of its mission, it proved dozen of new technologies and ideas. This is the kind of ideas that pushes humanity foward. Thank you for the video!

That thing was side by side with USS John C. Stennis CVN-74 in North Island, San Diego while I was station onboard the Stennis around 2001-2002. I still remember coming back late, drunk and by myself fm the bowling alley and suddenly find that shit on the corner. Woke up the next day and check just to make sure I didn’t imagine it.😂

In 1999 I was working at pier 39 and watched the Sea Shadow slowly maneuver north past Alcatraz while surrounded by several nuclear submarines. 🥳

When I was aboard the FFG-23 (USS Lewis B. Puller) we almost rammed the Sea Shadow by accident while we were returning to port (at night) we were using normal navigation radar, but we didn't know where they were until they turned on a light! We had to use our quickly reversing Controllable Pitch Propeller and had our Gas Turbines (basically a pair of large jet engines (similar to the ones that some DC-10s & 11s used) quickly going to full speed to avoid contact!

I was as obsessed with this ship as I was the F-117 when I was younger! So frikken cool

The Sea Shadow: the biggest Bond Girl we've ever seen...

Man it’s honestly almost tragic that it was just… dismantled like that 😢

I served on DD-968 USS Arthur W. Radford and in 97" we had the Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensor (AEM/S) installed. I don't remember by how much but we had a smaller profile after. We use to tell people that asked that it was a water tower and we never had to go on water hours.

I talked with a gentleman who worked on this! The Navy worked with the Coast Guard for narco intercepts off the coast of Southern California. The Sea Shadow would be stationed between the intercept ships and the narco boats, with the intention of blocking the radar signature of the intercept ships in the Sea Shadow's shadow. It worked for a little while until seagulls started searching on the top of the Shadow, ruining the stealth shadow. Something had to be done. This gentleman designed several iterations of deterrence. Air poppers positioned vertically would frighten the birds for a little while. Eventually they became used to it and resumed resting on the Shadow. High pressure water guns were effective until they remembered that they like water. They finally landed on motorized rods with whips that would twirl around, whipping the seagulls ankles or whatever.

First time I heard of ‘Sea Shadow’ was in a video game called ‘Soviet Strike’ on ps1. Great memories.

Oh wow she's almost exactly 30 tears old now, yet she looks so incredibly sci fi

I was wondering when this one would hit. Well Done. She was a Advanced Electronics Mule. Bristling with capabilities.

I remember getting a glimpse off the forward of the CV64 while docked in North Island Naval base CA

Simon's blazer and blue sweater. I've seen it so much lately, I'm beginning to be that it's his favorite go to outfit.

This ships was very interesting. It's truly a game changer. Currently any modern ship that's designed and even attempts to keep up has a stealthy design.

Made famous by OO7 tomorrow never dies

Elementary homes! 😂 Now do the USN Improved Navy Lighterage System please. Not stealthy, not fast, not cool, not fun, no skunks works even. But 5.5 Million Tons of Relief Aid to Haiti in 30 days the year they officially entered service is what I consider a Mega Project. I'm just a simple Engineman though. Unimpressed by flash, flare hype and most certainly acronyms😊 You will not be disappointed in your research. NOTE: NL or Mavy Lighterage had been around since the 1950s;arguably earlier than that. But the INLS system in all its applications was seemingly unaltered for over 50 years. I'm not here to argue whether they got it right or not when they "improved" the "system". But there is no doubt that when Amphibious Construction Battalions are called up to put these to work there is no mistaking what we do and no one group "Can Do" everything we do in every aspect. We're waiting....🎉 SEND IT!

I remember this as home base in mission one of Nuclear Strike

Fascinating, this channel never fails to be watch worthy

I was always fascinated by this thing. Had hoped to be able to get on board and check it out one day. Was tragic looking at photos of it being literally torn to shreds.

I am already familiar with this story but the part about the Polaroid still amazes me so much.

I was moored up next to this thing for 4 years. I cant recall how many times I saw it get underway...

Fabulous! Many thanx Simon. 👍👍

Reminds me off early iron clad shapes

Thanksmuch for this!

I remember seeing her for auction, what a smugglers boat she would make

You can see a modern variant of the ship, primarily for littoral class operation. The Sea Fighter, based here in Panama City Beach Florida.

My father used to watch the Sea Shadow in SF bay from the office building he worked at.

ahhh the tomorrow never dies ship. it's interesting how incredible projects may not see operational use themselves but act as a proving ground/proof of concept for things that have an operational future

I never understood how this ship never ended up in the Smithonian or some other museum, as testbed for stealth afterall!

I came across this ship shortly before it "came out of the closet". I was making a delivery to the Port of Redwood City ( Probably the least busy harbor in the country), and there was this...thing tide up at the pier. Just a long angled wall with nothing sticking out or up. A dark red brown color. The thing is there was no visible security. No guards, no fences , nothing. They were hiding it in plane sight.

What, a Megaproject that didn't go over budget? Inconceivable!😉

The US Navy played around with the SWATH design before - the USS Pigeon class Sub Rescue ships are a prime example.

I live on Treasure Island, in the San Francisco Bay 1/2 way between Oakland and SF. They had this docked at our Marina back around 2010. Kinda sad to hear its life is over.

I took a tour of her during a San Diego Fleet Week, interesting ship.

Had to take these out in the old ps1 games jungle strike and desert strike where you're a helicopter pilot and have to fly different helicopters during different wartime operations

Good topic. I had never heard of this.

Ben Rich’s memoir, Skunk Works, is a really good book.

Wow. I wouldn't have thought the ship was so old. I would have bet it was built on the early to mid '90s.

1:10 - Mid roll ads 3:05 - Chapter 1 - The invisible dream 6:20 - Chapter 2 - Silent waves 11:15 - Chapter 3 - Legacy

very cool. i hadn't heard of this before.

I had no idea this thing was made in our backyard just up the peninsula. Redwood City had more to offer the world than just a lot of doctors offices.

Thank you. I always wondered about the Sea Shadow. My reasoning was the U.S. Navy already had stealthy ships: submarines. Now I have a better idea of what this funny-looking ship was for. Too bad she was scrapped. Would have made a nice addition to a museum somewhere (if one could be found that was big enough).

I've always thought the Sea Shadow to be such a cool design! I can imagine her as a sort of quick-striker, sneaking upon her prey through the dead of night, like a predator on the prowl, before unleashing an anti-ship missile or a torpedo on her target and slipping away into the night before they even know where it came from.

Always seemed like a perfect covert ops delivery vehicle or a good way to quickly get missile support to a coast undetected for suppression or first strike needs. Shame it was dismantled. Nowadays it would have become someones private yacht.

Amazing! ❤️

Ah .. so this stealth sub is probably at least partly the inspiration for the Tuatha de Danaan from FMP... damn they should really build that.. :-X

Ha! That Hughes Ming Barge is in Alameda California. Just to the right of the picture is the ferry station that will take you into San Francisco. In fact, the blue catamaran dry docked in the background is one of those ferries, They've had all kinds of crazy shit in that dock.

Sea Shadow is such a cool name!

01:07 Wasn't that the 1 in the 1997 Bond film Tomorrow Never dies 🤔 Although from its interior, it looked more like a harmless cargo ship, save for a massive remote controlled drill!

My favorite part of WOW is the international espionage

Even made its way into a James Bond movie.

I thought i recognised this! 🤣 i loved that film

fantastic.....

Stealth boats.... Bring back the zebra stripes...

I learned about this ship from the helicopter game for the Playstation called Nuclear Strike

This ship has occupied a place in my brain ever since i first saw it in Urban Strike.

Better do one on the active service Sweedish navy Stealth ships now.

similar boat "The Ghost" up in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Navy needs to take a second look at these cool boats

What an appropriate sponsor for the video!

Skjold-class corvette, the world's fastest warships, stealth missile coastal corvette in service with the Royal Norwegian Navy. Visby-class corvette, a stealth ship currently in service within the Swedish Navy.

This is the second thing you are advertising that I already own :P

It's kind of ironic that only now are world militaries looking at "stealthfying" submarines again, beyond the anechoic tiles. It's just a matter of who will be the first to actually produce a large stealth submarine, given it'll be a dramatic change to operational procedures and docking standards.

While serving as a Command Duty Officer at Naval Station San Diego I was able to board this ship one evening. INTERESTING is an understatement

Have you noticed that the Sea Shadow and Zumwalt class have a shape similar to the Ironclad CSS Virginia?

How about a video of Bradley IFV? If the movie Pentagon Wars is to believe it had interesting history of re-re-re-re-designs.

I remember blowing this thing up in Commanche 4

01:13 - Yep, I play that regularly if any of you are interested in teaming up - PS5 🚢 - Although it's the - Legends variant -

LOVE your outfit.

I've wondered where the idea for the ship in tomorrow never dies came from, now I know

Can you do a video about the I 400 class japanese submarine otherwise known as Sen Toku

Gotta wonder if there were any secret projects that just were not advertised. I mean, what would you do with a sub that obody could ever hear? Sneak up to a coastline and drop off some SEALs? Track some Chinese aircraft carriers? Maybe some RUssian subs?

i highly suggest reading ben rich's book "skunk works". he mentions this ship.

It looks just like the CSA Virginia, wow stealth in 1860's. Kirk to Scotty "full speed ahead, aye aye cap'n!" eh Scotty we're going backwards! Aye capt'n they put the propllers on backwards!

First I saw of this ship was in the game Nuclear Strike from PS1

Coooool 😎

I'm surprised the Naval Museum in RI or the Naval submarine museum in CT didn't want to take her in. It's a shame. I'd love to have set foot in such a unique vessel.

An example of how advancing technology would regress other technologies. If both sides had stealth ships that didn't show on radar, no missiles, no radar fire control, no turrets to show on radar. Naval combat would revert to ships getting in close enough for visual spotting, and exchanging broadsides from guns, aimed by the gun crews.

It looks like the twin hull might make a good design for an aircraft carrier with the angled sides and a flat top.😎

I remember playing Nuclear Strike and landing on this ship.

I hope the USN developed a way to detect a the Sea Shadow before selling her for scrap. Wouldn't want a rival building 20, arming them with anti-ship missiles and positioning them around USN facilities on the East Coast, including Hawaii.

Personally I very much prefer the design of the “Ghost” stealth boat by Juliet Marine Systems. 👍🏻

On a side note. World of Warships is an Amazing game. I absolutely love my Iowa Class Battleship.

11:00 "In the San Francisco Bay near San Diego"? I think we need to define what "near" is.

Thing that completely turns me off to world of warships is its all like pre 1920

By "nuclear reactors", do you mean something like a lump of plutomium with a themocouple to create electrical current, that a lot of deep space exploratory satelites use? eg. Voyager 1&2, Cassini, New Horizons,etc.

I live near where this ship is located!

2:59 the invisible dream 6:14 silent waves 11:11 legacy

I’d pick stealth over speed any day. You don’t have to run away from something that doesn’t know you’re even there.

I can just picture Simon and Dan Carlin hanging out . Dans like I sent half my life researching this. I know what’s up. Simon I upload 1100 vids a year and have writers oh and I say fuck a lot. Love you Simon this is all good humor