MD-160 Ekranoplan may be saved as museum

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TheGreenGoblin
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Re: MD-160 Ekranoplan may be saved as museum

#21 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:14 am

G-CPTN wrote:
Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:46 pm
Whilst the hovercraft found a limited use, I attended a talk by Christoper Cockerell about his attempts to interest the Army.
The Russian navy and marines have bought into the use of the hovercraft as a landing craft, big time...

The Zubr Class air cushion landing craft

zubr1.jpg
zubr1.jpg (32.49 KiB) Viewed 406 times
Zubr can carry up to 130t of cargo: three medium battle tanks such as the T-80B tank, or eight BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles, or ten BTR-70 armoured personnel carriers, or 360 fully equipped amphibious landing troops. The ship has a bow and a stern ramp for fast landing of troops and combat material.

The ship is equipped with two stabilised multiple rocket launchers, four Igla-1M portable air defence missile systems, and two AK-630 30mm automatic gun mounts. The AK-630 shipborne artillery system is supplied by the Ametist Design Bureau in Moscow, the Izumrud Joint Stock Company in Vladivostok, the Sporting and Hunting Guns Research and Design Bureau in Tula and the Tula Engineering Plant Joint Stock Company also based in Tula.

The AK-630 artillery system provides defence against manned and unmanned air attack, including incoming sea-skimming anti-ship missiles, small sea targets, lightly armoured coastal targets and floating mines. The six-barrel automatic gun, model AO-18 has a firing rate of 5,000 rounds a minute.
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Boac
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Re: MD-160 Ekranoplan may be saved as museum

#22 Post by Boac » Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:16 am

The guy on the right looks as if he has forgotten his credit cards. :-)

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Re: MD-160 Ekranoplan may be saved as museum

#23 Post by Undried Plum » Fri Aug 28, 2020 7:40 am

I remember that Saudi bought some **** yuge military hovercraft from the UK, SRN-7s or somesuch, and sent their finest on a course in the Solent to learn how to drive 'em.

On the first day of deployment in the Gulf they spanked one against the Dammam breakwater at 40knots. It turned out that Ahmed had thought that the thing would simply float up and over the wall. Faith is a wonderful thing.

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Re: MD-160 Ekranoplan may be saved as museum

#24 Post by llondel » Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:36 pm

A hovercraft that size looks way too vulnerable for a contested beach landing. Those great big fans at the back are just asking for a missile of some sort, and the skirt needs to be bulletproof otherwise it's a really inviting target, especially if you can let out all the air while it's still offshore. I guess if it's got enough good defences then it'll be able to beat off such things.

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