Chapter 13, The Ship That Never Was Summary and Analysis

Ben comes up with an idea to build a stealth submarine. He and his staff create a design, but Kelly had a rule against working with the Navy, since they were fickle and difficult. A submarine captain complained about the submarine's shape, which angered Ben. DARPA was interested and so Ben and a colleague designed some official building plans. Skunk Works argued that investing in a stealth submarine would be ultimately cheaper than the other strategies that the armed forces were pursuing against the Soviets at sea. In 1978, Ben took his test results for the sub to Bill Perry at the pentagon. He was impressed and commissions a prototype called the Sea Shadow. Ben was pressured by economic conditions to give the project up to Ocean Division, a shipbuilding company in...