The Hawker Sea Hurricane was an adapted shore based Hurricane fighter bomber by the fitting of a V-framed arrester hook and catapult spools. Some 300 Hurricanes were assigned for refitting as Sea Hurricanes, the rest of the total of about 800 Sea Hurricanes were newly built.

The first 50 rebuilt Hurricanes were for catapult launching from CAM-ships (Catapult Aircraft Merchantman) they were called Sea Hurricanes Mk Ia and they were lacking arrester hooks for deck-landings. The Sea Hurricanes that were fitted with arrester hooks for conventional ship board operations were known as the Sea Hurricane Mk Ib, FAA squadrons began reforming on the Sea Hurricanes Mk Ib's from early 1941. From late 1942 the Sea Hurricane Mk IIc with the Rolls Royce Merlin XX engine appeared.

The Sea Hurricane was also built in Canada as the Sea Hurricane Mk XIIa, it had a Packard built Merlin 29 engine.

No precise records are available about the total number of Sea Hurricane's built for the FAA, but there must of been at least 800 (included the Canadian production). Almost 600 Sea Hurricane's were included in the Royal Navy's inventory by mid 1942.