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I can almost swear I saw this watercraft in a James Bond movie once, but it turns out that the GHOST stealth littoral defense ship is real, and really made by a Portsmouth, N.H., company.
Made by Juliet Marine Systems Inc., the GHOST operates on the surface with waterfoils partially under, but does so without having to deal with all that pesky drag from the water that slows down normal boats. Supposedly the GHOST uses a principle called supercavitation, which means a water vapor bubble big enough to encompass the two tubular floats at the end of its wing-like waterfoils is created at speed, cutting the drag by a factor of 900, the company claims. This same principle is used in super-fast torpedoes currently in use by various navies around the world.
That means that a GHOST could in theory get into a shallow-water combat environment without being detected because of its stealth design and high speed, and fire ordinance to an enemy position and depart at high speed. While the company announced its existence in August, today it put out another release touting its potential use as a weapon system that could keep the Straits of Hormuz open, should Iran attempt its threatened oil blockade.
It’s an impressive looking design, that’s for sure, and high tech enough to appeal to any nerd. Put another waterfoil on it sticking straight up, and head on it would be a dead ringer for the Lambda-class T4a shuttle used in Return of the Jedi. And that’s not the only tech angle to Juliet and the GHOST. According to its website, Juliet employs the same rapid development and deployment principles found in tech startups to be able to create “multi-faceted weapons systems in 1/3 the time and capital investment of conventional defense contractors.”
I doubt very much that something like this could be ready to deal with any possible upcoming blockade of the Straits, but I am definitely looking forward to seeing it the next time I am cod fishing off Portsmouth harbor. Hopefully it will move too fast to scare the fish.
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