From:	Marc Renouf renouf@********.com
Subject:	Shipping (was Re: the value of education)
Date:	Thu, 15 Jul 1999 17:14:12 -0400 (EDT)

On Thu, 15 Jul 1999, Paul J. Adam wrote:

> The Swedish Navy thinks differently - they're building low-observable
> coastal ships (the Gotland class IIRC).
>
> Reducing the signature of ships doesn't so much make them invisible, as
> increase the effectiveness of their countermeasures (there's less signal and
> just as much noise)

Yes, but think about the application. A coastal ship is in a much
better position to benefit from reduced observability due to the nature of
its environment. There's a hell of a lot more sensor clutter in a
brown-water environment than on the open ocean. I'm not saying the
concept doesn't have merit, just that it's applications don't justify its
cost. Further, the SeaShadow was *not* designed to be a coastal vessel,
but rather an honest-to-get blue-water vessel. The Gotlands are a much
different class of ship.

Marc