The entire ship is a repainted Shark9000 with all of its original parts minus the flexible water tube and I only included one "Shark-pedo". I have a graphic (traditional destro logo & mask design) for the front of the boat but I didn't put it on before taking the pictures.
For many years Destro has lacked an assault presence on the open seas. While his cruiser transport was good for ferrying troops and vehicles, it was too big and too bulky for coastal operations and of little use against fast moving attack craft. The cargo ship was, however, sufficient for over a decade while Destro's forces remained in use almost exclusively as security guards and a personal defensive army. Recently, following the attacks on various M.A.R.S. installations around the globe by the Black Dragons, Destro has re-envisioned, and refit, a unit of his Iron Grenadiers into a full fledged strike force to take the fight back to the Black Dragons. This new unit works not only on land, but can also assault from the air or sea, often with Iron Mambas and the newly built Stealth A.G.P.s as air cover.
Wearing the traditional IG headgear the new Marine Grenadiers have updated and enhanced body armor, state of the art surveillance and ECM backpacks and insulated, body heat dampening oversuits. Using the newly dubbed "Iron Shark" the new Grenadiers strike quick and hard from the sea, storming enemy coastlines and occupying target vessels with lightning quick strikes. As his new force continues to develop their skills and adapt their training techniques, Destro has already begun a subtle war against the Black Dragon organization, striking out against the covert group and assassinating several of its key leaders. As the fighting continues to expand with bigger, more destructive, battles Destro continues to seek out new armaments that he can adapt for his growing forces.
By late 1996 the original Shark9000 had been mothballed by the government following the disbandment of the G.I. Joe team and scaled down versions of the Shark9000 were redeveloped for US Coast Guard usage. A number of these "lesser Sharks" were destroyed along the East Coast over a series of months in a string of offshore attacks. During one of these attacks a Shark was abandoned in shallow coastal waters after being hit by an anti-ship missile where it rapidly sunk. Unknown to any US government agencies Cobra salvaged the vessel, rebuilt it, and put it up on the black market to create some quick capital gains. For a couple of years this craft was used along the African coast by modern day pirates to smuggle jewels and drugs. Eventually word of this vessel reached Destro and soon thereafter the ship was boarded by Destro's Marine Grenadiers on one of their earliest missions on the pretense that the vessel was carrying stolen Mars electronics. This was a complete fabrication, of course, but there was little the pirate crew of the boat could do. Destro quickly refurbished the vessel and put it back out to sea with a vast technological upgrade courtesy of M.A.R.S.'s Experimental R&D division.
