Russia revives the idea of “Caspian monsters” - giant ekranoplanes that scared NATO
The idea of giant ekranoplans is being revived in Russia - aircraft that combine the qualities of a ship and an airplane and in Soviet times frightened NATO, where they were called "Caspian monsters." A new platform is being developed that will allow the creation of WIGs with a payload of up to 600 tons of both civilian and military applications.
Last year, the army decided to abandon the idea of unusual "flying ships". "In the state defense order for 2011-2020 years, funding for the development and construction of ekranoplans is not provided. These ships are not in the plans for the development of the Navy for the next decade," Izvestia wrote in November.
But the idea itself did not die without a defense order. Interfax announces the beginning of the development of a new expandable platform - they are engaged in NPP Radar MMS and TsKB them. Alekseeva. The concept provides for the release of the first new generation of ekranoplans with a large capacity from 50 to 600 tons to 2016 year, as well as the development of transport and cargo-passenger wig machines with a payload capacity of up to 2 thousand - 3 thousand tons in the future. "
In the "Radar" reported that the platform of the new generation can be used for civilian and military purposes.
In the meantime, the creators carry on exhibitions a small ekranoplan - ten-meter “Aquaglide-5”. Five is the number of passengers that the aircraft takes on board.
The ups and downs of "Caspian monsters"
The first ekranoplans were developed in the middle of the last century in the Nizhny Novgorod Central Clinical Hospital of Rostislav Alekseev. "Flying ships" used the effect of an aerodynamic screen - due to the air cushion separating the ship from the water, they could slide above the surface. Low-flying Soviet ekranoplans were inaccessible both for enemy radar and for missiles that cannot detect a target that does not touch the water and does not rise above 100 meters above it.
At the same time, an aluminum-magnesium alloy vehicle could cover an enormous distance in a few minutes, having several hundred paratroopers with heavy weapons on board, and immediately move the bridgehead for their landing with guided missiles.
In the 1980s as part of the Caspian flotilla there was a 236th division of ekranoplan ships. It was based in Kaspiysk and it consisted of three transport and landing "Eaglet" project 904, as well as one rocket winged project "Lun" project 903.
The ancestor of the ekranoplanes "Lun" and "Eaglet" was created in a single copy experimental 544-ton KM-6 (ship-mock-up), the abbreviation of which in NATO was decoded as "Caspian monster". The first copy of the "monster" crashed in 1969, when the pilot lost the visual horizon due to heavy fog and crashed into the water at high speed. The second copy, also due to the pilot’s error in 1980, crashed and sank in the Caspian Sea (the crew managed to escape).
“Eaglet” was not afraid of a storm in 2-3 points, it steadily flew at a height from 1 to 10 meters, but when tested it rose to 100 meters. Such machines were intended for the rapid transfer of troops and equipment, which was loaded through the reclining "nose" of the aircraft-ship. The first copy of the "Eaglet" - C-21 - crashed in August 1992, then the flight engineer died in the rank of ensign. The second sample, C-25, was cut for scrap in the 2000 year, and the third, C-26, stands on the Khimki reservoir. The last flight with combat shooting ekranoplan "Eaglet" performed in the summer of 1989 year.
The Lun attack rocket-carrying vehicle, the serial number of the C-31, could reach speeds up to 250 nodes (463 km / h) and was armed with six Mosquito guided anti-ship missiles. Until 2008, he was based in Kaspiysk. In the future, "Lun" was mothballed in a dry dock, and all the secret electronics was put into warehouses.
The website of the Russian Air Force draws a disappointing conclusion: after the collapse of the USSR and the changing situation in the world, the EE was used as a burden for the military - “it’s not clear to ships and aircraft, and it’s not clear what to do with them”. As a result, there is only one thing left - to send them to the scrap.
Information