Lun-class ekranoplan

42.8820447.660063Koordinaten: 42 ° 53 'N, 47 ° 40 ' E

The Lun - class (Russian Лунь, Consecration ), Project 903, NATO reporting name Utka (Russian, duck ') is a Soviet ground-effect vehicle class.

History

From the 1960s, the command of the Soviet Navy put his strategy for amphibious warfare and for coastal defense redefines. The aim of the strategy was to be able to land troops on the shores of the Baltic and the Black Sea quick and surprising. This resulted in a strong interest in vehicles that large contingents of troops can quickly be transported over long distances. In addition, the Navy was interested in vehicles, can attack the enemy ships with very high speed and possible undetected.

For this reason, among others, the Central Design Office for Hydrofoilfahrzeuge Alexeyev was created under the direction of Rostislav Alexeyev, about almost nothing was known until the end of the Soviet Union in the West. Main task of the office was the exploration of ground effect vehicles and their development.

From the 1960s began work on various prototypes of ground effect vehicles such as the " Caspian Sea Monster " (KM ), which in the 1970s for the first vehicle of a planned series, the Lun - class, led. Since ground effect vehicles by radar because of their special design and their low flight are difficult to be detected, it should be the main task of the Lun - class, run fast and flexible attacks against enemy fleets. Since ground effect vehicles require a high driving force for lifting and it more often to " bottoming out " occurs during takeoff, the Lun - class was designed as a flying boat. It additional engines were installed to apply the driving force to start.

In the 1970s, has been a vehicle of the Lun - class, the MD -160, completed and tested. From 1987 the model in the Caspian flotilla served. In the 1990s it was taken out of service and is since then on the Navy Yard Kaspijsk in Dagestan. After spot check, the last time in 2013, described the specimen of the lung is gone. There are spot any references to the Verbringungsort.

A second vehicle of similar design, the Spasatel was planned as a mobile field hospital for the amphibious fleet, but after the demise of the Soviet Union the project was discontinued at the beginning of the 1990s. Spasatel still lies in Nizhny Novgorod largely completed at the shipyard.

Specifications

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