15 Classified Intel Reports Say Stealth Ships Aren't Stealthy

The Washington Post is railing against defense earmarks, but that wasn't what got my attention.

And last July, when the Navy's top brass decided to end production of their newest class of destroyers -- in response to 15 classified intelligence reports highlighting their vulnerability to a range of foreign missiles -- seven Democratic senators quickly joined four Republicans to demand a reversal. They threatened to cut all funding for surface combat ships in 2009.

Later in the article.

Intelligence reports have warned that the ship will be unable to fend off missile threats, including an advanced missile being developed by China and simple ones already possessed by Hezbollah. As a result, the Navy agreed to end production of the hard-to-hide 14,000-ton vessels, capping the program at two ships instead of seven.

I'm not impressed with the political discussions in this article. Am I supposed to be impressed that independent sources have verified that the political party in power is receiving more political donations from the defense industry? Shocking...

What I find interesting is the "15 classified intelligence reports highlighting their vulnerability to a range of foreign missiles." I think someone, or 15 someones, suggest that stealth at sea has turned out to be unrealistic even against the electronic threats it is intended to defeat, as opposed to the visual MK 0 eyeball it fails to help against already.

Captain Hughes defined stealth at sea as cover. Some people don't like that definition, and those people are usually taking an Army or Marine point of view to cover. Appropriate if you ask me, the Navy has been taking an Air Force point of view to stealth. I think what is important it that environment matters, and specific concepts will be different because the environment is different.

I think Hughes was right to describe stealth at sea as cover, and the mistake to adopt other definitions and treat stealth at sea like stealth in the Air Force is why pirates operate with stealth off Somalia and the Navy actually believed it was a good idea to build 14,500 ton stealth battleships.