HSV Sea Slice is an experimental United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 vessel, built by Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....

. Based on a variant of the SWATH hull design known as "SLICE", the Sea Slice is characterized by four teardrop-shaped submerged hulls, double the number seen on most previous designs. According to the US Navy, the design reduces waves and drag, which allows a SWATH vessel to "...operate at higher speeds while retaining their characteristic low motions in a seaway". Designed for operation in the same area as, and mount similar armament to, a LCS

Littoral combat ship

A Littoral Combat Ship is a type of relatively small surface vessel intended for operations in the littoral zone . It is "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals." Two ship classes are the first...

-type corvette, current weapon options include the Millennium Gun

Oerlikon Millennium 35 mm Naval Revolver Gun System

The Oerlikon Millennium 35mm Naval Gun System is a Close-in weapon system designed by Oerlikon for mounting on ships. It is based on the new Oerlikon 35 mm revolver cannon land based Air defense system, and uses AHEAD ammunition...

 and the NetFires System, intended to launch Lockheed's (now cancelled) Loitering Attack Munition.

External links

• Lockheed Martin SeaSLICE factsheet (PDF). Retrieved 11 June 2009.
• Maritime Reporter, Sea SLICE Provides Glimpse of Future, Wednesday, October 30, 2002. Retrieved 11 June 2009.