- Yes
- No
TL;DR:
Coastal “vessel”, massive aircraft-looking vehicle that glides just above the surface, armed with 6 anti-ship missiles.
Overview:
The only armed ground effect vehicle (GEV) ever built, Project 903 “Lun” was built on the basis of the larger experimental “KM”, or Caspian Sea Monster, sharing a similar basic shape and engine layout. A GEV uses the “ground effect”, where there is significantly less drag on the wings when close to the surface, which allows a vehicle much heavier than an aircraft to still move at high speeds over land or water. The Lun had a hull akin to a flying boat, with 8 turbojets stacked together beside the bridge, thrusters angled slightly downwards to push air under the wings, and large though short wings to exploit the ground effect. The vehicle was armed like an in-between of a missile boat and aircraft, with bomber style turrets with twin autocannons at the fore and aft, and 6 Moskit missiles carried on the back of the vehicle.
Only a single Lun would be built, S-31, which was laid down in Gorky in 1983. Construction took 4 years and it was formally trialed from 1987-1989. It was commissioned into the Caspian Flotilla in 1990, and it was planned to build 8 more vehicles of its type, with another one laid down as a rescue/hospital vehicle. However with the Soviet collapse and the following financial instabilities, no more of its type would be built, and the unfinished sister put into storage. The S-31 was not commissioned with the newly formed Russian Navy, and it was mothballed on a drydock in Kaspiysk. The vehicle languished until 2020, when officials decided to turn it into a museum display. It was towed out of drydock to Derbent and beached. It remains on the beach now as the “patriot park” where it will be displayed is still being constructed.
Specifications:
Armament:
2x2 23mm PI-23 (600 round magazines)
3x2 P-100 Moskit SSMs (6 3M80 Missiles)Displacement/Weight:
286 tons standard
380 tons fullLength: 73.3m
Width/Wingspan: 44m
Height: 19.2m
Draft: 2.5m (when hull-borne)
Cruising Altitude: 4m
Propulsion: 8 Kuznetsov NK-87M turbojet engines, 104 000 kgf (~1020 kN)
Speed: 270 knots (500 km/h)
Range: 1100 nmi (at 270 knots)
Crew: 15
Systems:
Redan-2 FCR
Poluchas search radar
Don-2 navigation radar
Khipper ECM suite
Images:
Sources:
Petrov, G. F. (2000). Gidrosamolety i ekranoplany rossii 1910 - 1999 (pp. 206-207). Rusavia.
Apalkov, Yu, V. (2004). Korabli VMF SSSR (Vol. 2, Part 2) (pp. 25-28). Sankt-Peterburg.
Images:
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/caspian-sea-monster-ekranoplan/index.html
