Last year I read an article in (Popular Mechanics?) regarding a series of Trimaran style ships that the Navy was attempting to develop. Recently I tried to find out whether they had made any progress, but I am able to find only the barest mention of it on the web. Did budget cuts kill this project, or did they just stop sharing info? Most of what I turn up is in relation to a British experiment of the same type. Anyone know anything?
Firstly, Popular Mechanics ain’t very reliable in my book.
Secondly, I doubt they were battleships. Battleships are armored ships with big guns that have been obsolete since the beginning of Big Mistake #2.
Thirdly – the US and other nations have experimented with multiple-hulled vessels. While they look and sound kewl, having multiple hulls on a vessel increases the chance of the hulls splitting apart, and decreases the multiple hulls decrease the bouyancy, meaning you have to have a lighter ship.
Is this what you are looking for? That is a pic of the Sea Shadow advanced technology test vessel. It is a cat, not a trimaran, but this is the only thing that the U.S. Navy has built or ordered that might fit your recollection. According to the Haze Gray database, it is:
Popular Mechanics publishes a lot of concepts, trial balloons, and outright guesses. Or it may never have made it past the initial planing stages.
I think that the villian’s ship in Tomorrow Never Dies was played by the Sea Shadow, though I could be wrong about that.
Well, the US Navy is experimenting with catamarans for high speed sealift - they’re borrowing a ship from Incat and are also building a test article for delivery next year, but they’re just cargo ships (and mainly interesting for their high speed).
They’ve also had research vessels that were cats, as well as the afore-mentioned Sea Shadow, but nothing that’s mounted weapons.