News from all over - Norfolk

The Navy's new fast ship is nearly 90 feet long, 40 feet wide and attacks like a sea serpent. It's packed with banks of computers, flat-panel video screens and shock-absorbing chairs to smooth a ride that reaches speeds of more than 50 mph.

Its twin, M-shaped hull leaves little wake. It's odd by design. And there is only one of them. The Navy hopes the craft, called Stiletto, will help transform how it designs, builds and thinks about ships.

Since the end of the Cold War, Pentagon planners have sought to make the military a more diverse force that can fight small insurgencies as well as large battles. The Pentagon requested a high-tech ship capable of delivering SEAL commandos and unmanned vehicles in 2004. The military chose a small firm in San Diego, M Ship Company, that had designed civilian craft but never a Navy vessel. The ship was completed 15 months from contract signing.
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