Plans for Providence, RI, USA Russian Sub Museum

[u-5075]

http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/02/russian-sub-pre.html

Russian sub president's next target: old Navy vessels
11:55 AM Tue, Feb 24, 2009 | Permalink
Philip Marcelo

PROVIDENCE -- Frank Lennon, the president of the now-shuttered Russian Submarine Museum, made the front page of the Wall Street Journal today, saying he'd be interested in turning a pair of top secret, decommissioned vessels that the Navy is trying to get rid of into museums.

The vessels are a two-in-one: Sea Shadow, which was the Navy's first experimental "stealth" ship, berths inside the Hughes Mining Barge, which is the only fully submersible dry dock ever built. The Navy has been trying to give them away since 2006.

"I'm fascinated by the possibilities," Lennon is quoted as saying in the article.
Absent from the discussion, however was how Lennon and his organization, the USS Saratoga Foundation, would propose to pay for preservation of the ships.

The foundation's own war vessel-turned-museum, a decommissioned Russian submarine, had been so badly damaged in a storm in 2007 that it had to be closed.

In December, the foundation agreed to hand over the badly deteriorated sub to Rhode Island Recycled Metals, which was to move the submarine downriver to the company's Allens Avenue property, most likely for scrap.

[u-5075]

Here's some more info on

Here's some more info on the US stealth ship looking for a home that the Providence Russian Sub Museum is wanting to get.

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/02/top_secret_navy.php

There is a good photo of this stealth ship here as well as the article further below.

[Incidently, there is also an article about Sweden's creating world's first operational stealth ship.... interesting lines.
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/02/sweden_creates.php ]

Top secret Navy vessel to be scrapped — unless you want it

I guess the Navy is too good for Ebay. Instead, the US aquatic fighting force is trying to find a new home for its top secret stealth ship, the Sea Shadow, and the barge that housed it and kept it safe from satellite detection. For the past two years the Navy hasn't had any luck, and will scrap the ships if no one wants them.

Both are relics from the Cold War. The Sea Shadow was designed escape detection on the water much like a stealth fighter would evade radar detection in flight. The accompanying barge, the Hughes, is the world's only "fully submersible dry dock," and would let the Sea Shadow come and go out of its 76-feet-wide, 72-feet-high door.

One man, Frank Lennon from Providence, Rhode Island, is interested in adding the vessels to the Soviet sub he's got, which was recently sunk by a storm and then raised again by Navy divers. The only problem is that the Navy wants to give both vessels away as part of a package, and the cost to maintain the ships is enormous — usually much more than a privately-run niche exhibit can rake in. Hopefully Mr. Lennon can find a way to accommodate the vessels — or convince the Navy to help — or else the odd history of both vessels will lack the presence of either.

Wall Street Journal, via Uncrate

[tom dougherty]

The accompanying barge, the Hughes,

The accompanying barge, the Hughes, is the world's only "fully submersible dry dock," and would let the Sea Shadow come and go out of its 76-feet-wide, 72-feet-high door.

The HMB-1 barge was originally built to house the Capture Vehicle used in the attempt to recover the K-129 by the Hughes Glomar Explorer. The barge was adapted later for the Sea Shadow.

http://www.white.at/projectjennifer/images/elements/hmb.jpg

and http://www.projectjennifer.at/