Michael Peck
Security, Europe
While Russia is turning back toward Cold War hovercraft, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are looking toward the future.
Russia will procure more Zubr (“bison”) hovercraft, a sixty-two-foot-long, 555-ton air-cushioned behemoth that can ferry three tanks, ten smaller armored vehicles or five hundred troops. Construction of the first vessel is slated to begin in 2018, according to Russian news site Sputnik News, which did not indicate how many Rubbers would be built.
By way of comparison, the U.S. equivalent is the Landing Craft Air Cushion, or LCAC, which only weighs in at 182 tons and can carry just …read more
Source: The National Interest