‘The Ghost’: The Secret Stealth Boat that Flies Underwater
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‘The Ghost’: The Secret Stealth Boat
that Flies Underwater
This is Ghost and her existence was
classified for 4 years.
Despite her looks, she is not a
catamaran. Ghost is a boat attached to two giant submarines that, for the
most part, fly underwater … through air. But why the US Government
slapped secrecy orders on this privately built boat, calling it dangerous, to the extent that they didn’t even want allied countries to have
her, and how this boat can fly underwater, is Not What You Think.
The Ghost was built privately. In
fact, the boat’s inventor, Greg Sancoff, spent $5 million
Dollars of his own money to hire
engineers and naval experts to make the Ghost project happen.
Of course the idea was to
eventually market it to the US military, but why did Sancoff think
that the US Navy would be interested in his invention?
On October 12th, 2000, while docked
at the port of Aden, in Yemen, USS Cole was hit by a small boat.
That was loaded with explosives and
piloted by two terrorists. The explosion from the suicide attack created
a 40-foot wide hole near the waterline and severely damaged the 1-billion
dollar ship.
17 American sailors lost their
lives and 40 other crew members were injured.
In the aftermath of the attack, Greg
Sancoff started wondering about a gunship, which could neutralize this
type of threat. Furthermore, Sancoff came across a US Navy war game
report called “Juliet”, which simulated the US Navy attacking a force of
small high-speed boats. The simulation estimated the US Navy suffering
about 20,000 casualties in two days. This motivated Sancoff to start a new
company, Juliet Marine Systems, named after the report itself, and the
work began on a prototype, which would eventually become the Ghost.
The threat of small boats that could
disable much larger warships is not a new idea. Small
Torpedo boats of the early 20th
century did exactly that to the battleships.
Until 2011, the Ghost project was
kept a secret. All the testing was happening at night. But on August 11,
2011, the US Navy removed the secrecy orders and some $22 million dollars
of private money later, the Ghost made its first public appearance.
A striking feature of this boat is
stealth. The Ghost has a very low radar cross section for its size,
meaning that larger ships won’t pick her up on their radars. And while
this makes Ghost a great candidate for reconnaissance operations, her
primary mission is fleet defense.
A squadron of Ghost-like craft
could protect a flotilla of larger warships
Near shore against smaller maritime
threats, be it terrorist boats or Unmanned Maritime Systems.
The Ghost can be equipped with a
M197 20mm rotary cannon, as well as missiles like the
Griffin or Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System rockets. Aside from fleet defense, the vessel can also conduct anti-submarine warfare, piracy protection and mine countermeasures, plus it has a variety of sensors for reconnaissance purposes. Ghost can also carry 18 Navy Seals, making for a great assault vehicle. That said, there was also plenty of criticism. When the Ghost was made public, critics immediately started pointing out that the vessel doesn’t have the range or logistics to withstand blue water operations, at least not without some sort of mother ship. While it is worth noting that this boat can fit inside the well deck of various amphibious assault ships, and even be transported inside a C-17 cargo plane,
The Ghost was developed to operate
in very specific geographical areas. Which brings up the question: aside
from stealth, what makes the Ghost superior to traditional patrol boats?
Small patrol boats are quite
unstable in high seas, moving up and down and side to side with the motion
of the waves. This makes it incredibly difficult to drink a cup of
coffee, or launch any sort of weapons from patrol boats during higher
sea states. The solution to that problem is using a ship design called
SWATH, which stands for Small Water plane Area Twin Hull. SWATH ships
are different from Catamarans in that they are less susceptible to
wave motion due to their narrow waterline. The twin hulls that
provide the bulk of the displacement are completely submerged, and this
reduces the effects of wave action. The Ghost is effectively a boat that rides
on two fins, attached to two submarines which have 22 different underwater
control surfaces. This makes for a complex design since all of the
machinery, such as 2 gas turbine engines, two giant 800 gallon fuel
bladders and propellers have to be located inside the 62-foot
submarine shaped pontoons.
But on the plus side, having the
propulsion system underwater increases survivability.
Since SWATH rides below the water,
the water impacts are greatly diminished, because water only hits the
very sharp struts of the vessel, which produce negligible stability
issues.
This results in an incredibly smooth
ride. You could drink coffee in 6 foot waves with no problem. The
Ghost can handle waves up to 10 feet high with a maximum range of 500
miles. But there was a little problem.
Propellers are typically placed aft
of a boat, which push the vessel forward. But this would have created
structural problems for the Ghost. So the propellers were instead placed
in the front, effectively pulling the boat forward. But this unusual
propeller placement created a revolutionary advantage: reducing drag
with the help of cavitation.
There are two ways to boil
water. You could increase the temperature, or you could reduce the
surrounding pressure. Either method generates bubbles. Cavitation, simply
put, is the formation of bubbles on the propeller. When a propeller spins,
it produces areas of lower pressure around its blades, causing the
water to boil in the ambient temperature. This creates a trail of bubbles.
What’s inside the bubbles is not air. It’s water vapor. Now, if the
propeller is placed in the back of the boat, these bubbles are simply
exhausted.
But if you put the propellers in
front of the vessel, just like it was done on the Ghost, they form
underwater gas tunnels around the giant pontoons, which create 900
times less hull friction than if they were just moving through water.
This gives the Ghost superior efficiency with a top speed of 40
knots, making it the fastest SWATH ship on the planet.
However there are potential
drawbacks to placing a propeller in the front of the boat, because
if the boat hits something head on, the boat is dead in water. Not to
mention hitting any fish nets, or floating debris in the water. As a
side note, hydrofoils were faster and they have been around for a long
time. But they had a similar issue, with foils getting damaged
frequently.
Juliet Marine Systems were even planning
on designing future iterations of the Ghost to reach a speed of 70
knots. Spoiler alert, the whole company went under, because the US
military was not interested. But why?
According to Jay Cohen, a retired US
Navy rear admiral and Juliet Marine Systems advisor, it was
Back in 2009, Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency or DARPA, offered a contract to Juliet Marine Systems
in exchange for all its patent rights. But Sancoff didn’t want to
lose his intellectual property because he saw commercial value in
civilian applications of his patents. Instead the Ghost was offered
to the US Navy at a $10-million price tag.
The US Navy’s initial interest in
the vessel eventually faded away for a variety of
One reason was that they preferred
large-hull blue water ships that were also capable of in-shore operations,
instead of a small craft that could only perform inshore
missions.
But the Navy was also quite
apprehensive about working with new technologies, let alone startups,
especially after the fiascos with Zumvalt and the Littoral Combat
Ships.
The Navy wasn’t interested in
Juliet’s scaled-up 150-foot version of the Ghost either.
After Sancoff rejected the offer
from DARPA, the US Government slammed secrecy orders over four
patents which prevented Juliet Marine Systems from publicizing its
technology. The secrecy order was recommended by the Office of Naval
Research which called the Ghost technology “dangerous”.
The secrecy orders were lifted and
reinstated multiple times.
According to Sancoff, he
believed that the US government simply wanted him to go out of
business so no other countries could have his technology.
In 2014, the US Department of State
permitted foreign military sales discussions with South
Korea, but prior to any meetings,
Juliet Marine Systems had to file paperwork with the state department,
which would in turn run it by the US Navy. The meetings were approved, but
there were plenty of caveats including things that prevented the
company from talking to foreign buyers about the Ghost boat or its super caveating hull
technology. It was a catch 22.
Having such business challenges, in
2016, Juliet Marine Systems was forced to lay off 17 of its 20
employees, and then go to court against the US government. In 2021, the
Ghost was listed for sale for a bargain price of $2 million dollars.
Currently the Ghost is permanently located on display in Albacore park next
to USS Albacore in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
It’s ironic how history
repeats itself. In the early 20th century, the invention of torpedoes
allowed small boats to launch a weapon which could cripple much
larger cruisers and battleships. In response, a new class of ships was
invented; torpedo boat destroyers, whose mission was to haunt torpedo
boats.
Over time, the Destroyers got larger
and heavier, to the point that now, they need a small and fast boat
to protect them from attack boats and unmanned maritime systems. So it's
likely just a matter of time before boats like the Ghost become part
of many Navies around the world.
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