Watercraft Stealth Technologies

Stealth Ship

A ship which employs stealth technology construction techniques in an effort to ensure that it is harder to detect by one or more of radar, visual, sonar, and infrared methods. These techniques borrow from stealth aircraft technology, although some aspects such as wake and acoustic signature reduction are unique to stealth ships' design.

Radar cross section (RCS) is a measure of how detectable an object is with a radar. A larger RCS indicates that an object is more easily detected. An object reflects a limited amount of radar energy. A number of different factors determine how much electromagnetic energy returns to the source such as:

material of which the target is made; absolute size of the target; relative size of the target (in relation to the wavelength of the illuminating radar); the incident angle (angle at which the radar beam hits a particular portion of target which depends upon shape of target and its orientation to the radar source); reflected angle (angle at which the reflected beam leaves the part of the target hit, it depends upon incident angle);

Radar Cross Section (RCS)

In designing a ship with reduced radar signature, the main concerns are radar beams originating near or slightly above the horizon (as seen from the ship) coming from distant patrol aircraft, other ships or sea-skimming anti-ship missiles with active radar seekers. Therefore, the shape of the ship avoids vertical surfaces, which would perfectly reflect any such beams directly back to the emitter. Retro-reflective right angles are eliminated to avoid causing the cat's eye effect. A stealthy ship shape can be achieved by constructing the hull and superstructure with a series of slightly protruding and retruding surfaces. This design was developed by several German shipyards, and is thus extensively applied on ships of the German Navy.

Stealth Ship Shaping

Stealth Ship Examples

An experimental stealth ship built by Lockheed for the United States Navy. Though the program was begun in the mid-1980s but it was only in 1993-1994, the craft was revealed to the public. Has only 12 bunks aboard & max it can take 24 at once to sea, it doesn't have much room for a large crew. Measuring a bit over 160feet-long it has one small microwave oven, a refrigerator & table.

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Sea Shadow

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Visby

Designed to elude radar detection, acoustic detection, infrared detection & visual detection, it was the first stealth ship to enter service. Carbon fiber reinforced plastic is used to construct its surface.

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M80 Stiletto

The Stiletto, a Twin M hull vessel, is 80 ft in length providing a rectangular area equivalent to a conventional displacement craft 160 ft in length. The vessel's draft fully loaded is 3 ft and is designed for a speed of 50-60 kts. The design and construction of this vessel made from carbon fiber for reduced weight and added rigidity. Largest U.S. Naval vessel built using carbon fibre composite and epoxy building techniques, which yields a very light, but strong hull. Has been popular for its efficiency, low cost, innovation, higher payload fraction, agility, shock mitigation, shallow draft and stealth which are the new priorities for the next generation naval craft.

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Sea Jet

Sea Jet, with a length of more than 133-foot & a full load displacement of 120 tons [239,000 pounds] houses a Rolls Royce Naval Marine advanced water jet propulsion system, the AWJ-21, which improves surface ship efficiency & maneuverability by reducing noise & wake.

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Charc

It is tall enough to withstand high sea states, yet foldable so it can be taken aboard mother ships and can operate in very shallow waters," explains a spokesman for the Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors division, which is based in Moorestown, N.J.
The roughly 36-ft.-long craft would ride on a pair of buoyant pods. With the pods drawn inward, CHARC would sit about 14 ft. above the waterline. CHARC could avoid visual, radar and infrared detection as its water jet propulsion system speeds it along at 60 knots.

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DDG-1000

The currently developed under DD(X) - is the US version of a stealth ship.

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Skjold Class Patrol Boats

A new range of superfast, large stealth missile craft, also known as MTBs (missile torpedo boats). The word Skjold means shield in Norwegian. The flexibility inherent in Skjold is interesting also to other navies. They are among the fastest warships in the world and can reach speeds of up to 60 knots / 110 km/t.

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Sea Lion

Its hull form design can enhance the sea keeping capability of future small combatant craft.

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Navy Seals Boat

It's a stealth look alike, which has lots of windows, perhaps a rich & famous prized possession.

Braunschweig class corvette De Zeven Provincin class frigate Future Dutch Navy offshore patrol vessels Rotterdam class amphibious transport dock F125 class frigate Type 45 destroyer Formidable class frigate Hamina class missile boat Kolkata Class Destroyer Kedah class New Generation Patrol Vessels La Fayette class frigate Littoral combat ship Project 17A class frigate Shivalik class frigate

Visby class corvette Type 052C destroyer Type 054A frigate Zumwalt class destroyer Houbei class missile boat Milgems Tartarstan/Gepard class frigate Project 21630 Buyan Project 20380 Steregushchiy Admiral Grigorovich class frigate Gorshkov class frigate Project 21956 destroyer FREMM multipurpose frigates Horizon CNGF Skjold class patrol boat Sea Shadow (IX-529) Sachsen class frigate

Stealth Watercraft List

Intentional emission of radio frequency signals to interfere with the operation of a radar by saturating its receiver with noise or false information. There are two types of radar jamming: Mechanical and Electronic jamming.

Radar Jamming

It is caused by devices which reflect or re-reflect radar energy back to the radar to produce false target returns on the operator's scope. Mechanical jamming devices include chaff, corner reflectors, and decoys.

Mechanical Jamming

Made of different length metallic strips, which reflect different frequencies, so as to create a large area of false returns in which a real contact would be difficult to detect. It is often aluminum for weight purposes and is usually coated with something such as a plastic to make it more slick and less likely to bind up in large clumps.

Chaff

Multiple-sided objects that re-radiate radar energy mostly back toward its source. An aircraft cannot carry as many corner reflectors as it can chaff. Have the same effect as chaff but are physically very different.

Corner Reflectors

Maneuverable flying objects intended to deceive a radar operator into believing that they are actually aircraft. Dangerous: Can clutter up a radar with false targets making it easier for an attacker to get within weapons range and neutralize the radar. Can be fitted on decoys to make them appear larger than they are, thus furthering the illusion that a decoy is an actual aircraft. Some decoys have the capability to perform electronic jamming or drop chaff. Have a deliberately sacrificial purpose i.e. defenders may fire guided missiles at the decoys, thereby depleting limited stocks of expensive weaponry which might otherwise have been used against genuine targets.

Decoys

A form of Electronic Warfare where jammers radiate interfering signals toward an enemy's radar, blocking the receiver with highly concentrated energy signals. The two main technique styles are noise techniques and repeater techniques. The three types of noise jamming are spot, sweep, and barrage.

Electronic Jamming

Occurs when a jammer focuses all of its power on a single frequency. While this would severely degrade the ability to track on the jammed frequency, a frequency agile radar would hardly be affected because the jammer can only jam one frequency. While multiple jammers could possibly jam a range of frequencies, this would consume a great deal of resources to have any effect on a frequency-agile radar, and would probably still be ineffective.

Spot jamming

When a jammer's full power is shifted from one frequency to another. While this has the advantage of being able to jam multiple frequencies in quick succession, it does not affect them all at the same time, and thus limits the effectiveness of this type of jamming. Although, depending on the error checking in the device(s) this can render a wide range of devices effectively useless.

Sweep Jamming

Jamming of multiple frequencies at once by a single jammer.

Advantage: Multiple frequencies can be jammed simultaneously; however, the jamming effect can be limited because this requires the jammer to spread its full power between these frequencies. So the more frequencies being jammed, the less effectively each is jammed.

Barrage Jamming

Class of materials used in stealth technology to disguise a vehicle or structure from radar detection. RAM cannot perfectly absorb radar at any frequency, but any given composition does have greater absorbency at some frequencies than others; there is no one RAM that is suited to absorption of all radar frequencies. Can significantly reduce an object's radar cross-section in specific radar frequencies, but it does not result in "invisibility" on any frequency. Bad weather may contribute to deficiencies in stealth capability.

Radar Absorbent Material