M80 Stiletto Will Get Its Chance

It was selected as one of TIME magazines best inventions of 2006. It fits in a well deck, can support UAVs, claims to have excellent stealth, and is one of the most recognizable small craft in the US arsenal. It is unpopular in many traditional circles inside the Navy, and widely touted in other circles, particularly retired veterans of Vietnam river patrols. It has been claimed capable of performing virtually every brown and green water mission profile, and yet has never been discussed officially as performing any mission profile over the last couple of years.

Luckily, it will soon get its trial by fire, and we will find out what the $6 million M80 Stiletto can really do. This small nugget pops up in the insidedefense.com Defense Alert stack.

DefenseAlert, April 24, 2024 -- An experimental military vessel called "Stiletto" is slated to head toward Colombia next month to help U.S. Southern Command officials there track down drug traffickers, defense officials tell InsideDefense.com.

We see this as a very smart way to use a unique, untested platform. While we believe the hype of the M80 has gone a bit too far since its launch, we are very pleased to see the M80 earn its reputation with this trial on the front lines of operations. Like all unique platforms, maybe we'll see a military channel special this Christmas profiling its deployment? Probably not...

The Navy deserves credit here, it is very wise to send the unique platforms like Sea Fighter (FSF-1) and Stiletto to the front lines of small wars and see what they can do. Gates said it best the other day.

An unconventional era of warfare requires unconventional thinkers.

Given the unpopularity of the M80 Stiletto, not to mention Duncan Hunters Navy, it appears someone inside the Navy got the SECDEF's memo, and is showing a bit of unconventional thinking in a culture best defined for its conventional, traditional resistance to any change.