Work on their successors began in the 1980s. One of these was the Stingray light tank, developed by Textron Marine & Land Systems (formerly Cadillac Gage Textron), and armed with a 105-mm cannon.

The stingray had been sharing her tank with two white-spot bamboo male sharks. “Then our light bulb went off — sharks bite to mate — did one of our young males mate with her?” Smith wrote.