Iran unveils squadrons of flying boats

reply to post by mr-lizard


All it is a different body shape of a decades old weapon

For those who would like something better for their very own, visit Universal Hovercraft at www.hovercraft.com... . They have their series of wing-in-ground-effect hovercraft available as turnkey or as plans/kits. The site is worth a visit just for the videos of the craft in action.

As for me, I'll stick with my little, open cockpit biplane!

Wow, they are bragging about having flying boats? Is this supposed to be some new technological advancement? These things have been around since before world war one...

All I can say is, welcome to 1913, Iran. Moving on up in the world, huh?

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Wow, they are bragging about having flying boats? Is this supposed to be some new technological advancement? These things have been around since before world war one...

All I can say is, welcome to 1913, Iran. Moving on up in the world, huh?

I'm glad someones on the same page as me.

Ah well, maybe their next new weapon will do better. Maybe a squadron of stealth air balloons with heavy machine guns and a bomb?

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Wow, they are bragging about having flying boats? Is this supposed to be some new technological advancement? These things have been around since before world war one...

All I can say is, welcome to 1913, Iran. Moving on up in the world, huh?

en.wikipedia.org...

edit on 29-9-2010 by gimme_some_truth because: (no reason given)

Everything the US have is also based on what was used in world war 1.

If you people think that Iran is building these crafts to attack a carrier fleet, some people have no clue about what hey are talking about.
People on ATS might be stupid enough to imagine that these crafts are built to attack a carrier fleet, but i bet Iran has a different idea with these flying crafts. Like using them to patrol the wast shoreline they have.

The only good thing these cheep crafts can be used for when it comes to attacking a carrier fleet is being nothing but decoy's or distractions. Having a wast number of different hardware that can create distractions are the most efficient ways of conducting a tactical war even against a carrier fleet.

Laughing at what Iran is building just tells me that people here have no clue. Being ignorant is dangerous even if this is common technology. This craft used with other hardware can be a lethal combination if used right.

Originally posted by PuterMan
reply to post by bekod

 

Neat little aircraft that could inflict quite a bit of damage by sneaking in under radar. The US scoffs at this? Why?


Radar evading by flying too low to be detected. Of course it is not stealth, but try picking that signature out from wave tops.

What are they going to use them against?? US warships.
They would have a much larger radar signature then a missile.

Lets see what R2-D2 (phalanx gun system)does to them.
en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by FreeSpeaker
I can't believe some of you see potential in this junk. Canada has more damn bush planes that we can strap machine guns on with with better pilots. And even if they somehow were able to cause damage to a carrier fleet, how many similar weapons could the american industrial machine pump out to counter it? Check out ww2 american production and you will see no one can counter america's mass production.

Oh great! But we don't have manufacturing here anymore. Unless we could stop the war and wait for a shipment from China of "designed in California" goods. In the meantime we could send Chuck Norris and Ted Nugent to make sure things don't get out of hand!

Originally posted by butcherguy
reply to post by Atlantican

 

Betting between even this little boxy bird and a sitting duck destroyer would be tough odds if their rumored EMP capabilities mean anything.

That would mean that their EMP capabilities would have to a lot better than their 'combat' aircraft design that we see here.

I think a lot of people that seem to hate Israel wish that the Iranians had a wonder weapon.

EMP can be delivered by directed energy or by missile if you want to go the old fashioned route that even an aboriginal tribe could handle quickly.
That's one of the benefits of me being half Jew. I only half hate Israel and half hate my homeland. Not full on.
I'm kidding, of course.

Originally posted by FreeSpeaker
I think the fact that no super power has developed a similar fleet since WW2 makes it pretty clear that the super power nations tested them and found them to be ineffective.

And for all the talk of EMP's coming from Iran, can any of you show proof Iran has EMP capibility? The Pentagon brass is worried they could be developing it but that doesn't mean they already have it. A large scale EMP tested anywhere in the world would be detected by the USA. So unless Iran decided not to test the weapon before firing it the US would know they have it.

To be honest, any nation with science over grade 4 and at least one microwave can quickly adapt if it has the capability to make explosives, antennas and haste.

However, a nation that has launched its own satellite and scared the heebie jeebies out of the middle east & our fine western world for so long probably has a thousand workable prototypes shelved for an easy decade.

reply to post by Atlantican



Israel, the US and the media all claim that Iran is a great threat. But at the same time we say Iran is no match for us at all.

What is actually the facts here. Is Iran a military threat or not?

The way most people in here view Iran's capabilities, they are not a threat at all. So why are we claiming that they are so damn dangerous if they are not?

If Israel and the US has the capability to shoot down every single rocket Iran throws at them, how can a missile with a nuclear warhead be a threat?

The way people talk in here, it seams like nothing can touch Israel or the US in anyway, no matter what Iran is building.

reply to post by peck420

Buy a couple turbo props from China, make plane 25% larger and have a little skipper that could drop a 500lb torpedo no problem.

Who makes or uses 500 lb. torpedoes?

It would hard to make a viable torpedo weighing in at 500 pounds or less , WITHOUT a warhead. Hell, the warhead should weigh at least 500 lb.

On top of that, I don't think that flying boat could carry that 500 pounds, unless you didn't fuel it up!

reply to post by hoghead cheese

These craft are designed to get in quick do as much damage as possible and get out.

They may be designed to do something, I am not sure what it is.

They may stand a meager chance of getting in. Doing damage? Even smaller chances of that. Get out? The pilot may get out of the war, maybe hook up with the rumored 72 virgins.

The Iranians claim that for this aircraft is reconnaissance. If this is so, why have a machine gun? any weapons on a recon aircraft are defensive in nature IF they have them at all. If you want to use an underpowered low level plane for recon, it should be land based. The design they have come up with has a ton of drag, just because it is a flying boat. Why the open cockpit? That adds a huge amount of, (in this day and age) totally unnecessary drag. Instead of a machine gun, the Iranians should have added a camera linked with a GPS sending real-time video through an encrypted link back to their intelligence services.

Originally posted by Atlantican

Originally posted by butcherguy
reply to post by Atlantican

 

Betting between even this little boxy bird and a sitting duck destroyer would be tough odds if their rumored EMP capabilities mean anything.

That would mean that their EMP capabilities would have to a lot better than their 'combat' aircraft design that we see here.

I think a lot of people that seem to hate Israel wish that the Iranians had a wonder weapon.

EMP can be delivered by directed energy or by missile if you want to go the old fashioned route that even an aboriginal tribe could handle quickly.
That's one of the benefits of me being half Jew. I only half hate Israel and half hate my homeland. Not full on.

I'm kidding, of course.

edit on 29-9-2010 by Atlantican because: (no reason given)

That Iran/Israel hate comment was not fired directly at you, I should have made that clear.
Sorry for any misunderstanding.

Originally posted by spy66
reply to post by Atlantican

 

Israel, the US and the media all claim that Iran is a great threat. But at the same time we say Iran is no match for us at all.

What is actually the facts here. Is Iran a military threat or not?

The way most people in here view Iran's capabilities, they are not a threat at all. So why are we claiming that they are so damn dangerous if they are not?

If Israel and the US has the capability to shoot down every single rocket Iran throws at them, how can a missile with a nuclear warhead be a threat?

The way people talk in here, it seams like nothing can touch Israel or the US in anyway, no matter what Iran is building.

Before the first Gulf war against Iraq, I heard tons of talk from the MSM about how it wasn't going to be any cakewalk for the US, what with Saddams one million man standing army and all of his advanced planes.
Does anyone remember how many of our ships were sunk by Iraq? Probably not, being that there weren't any.

What aircraft he had turned tail and ran for Iran, some made it.

What reason do we have to believe that it would be any different with Iran?

Originally posted by butcherguy
reply to post by peck420

 

Buy a couple turbo props from China, make plane 25% larger and have a little skipper that could drop a 500lb torpedo no problem.

Who makes or uses 500 lb. torpedoes?

It would hard to make a viable torpedo weighing in at 500 pounds or less , WITHOUT a warhead. Hell, the warhead should weigh at least 500 lb.

On top of that, I don't think that flying boat could carry that 500 pounds, unless you didn't fuel it up!

I just checked up on the air launched torpedo facts.
The US Mark 50 torpedo is the light weight air launched model that we use. Its total weight at launch is 750 pounds. Link to reference:
en.wikipedia.org...

It is not effective against surface ships, due to the extremely small warhead size of 100 lbs. It is used against submarines targets only.

I believe we can agree that the new Iranian flying boat does not have anti-submarine warfare capabilities. Personally, I don't believe it would be possible for it to carry a torpedo due to its design. Where would you sling a torpedo under that plane/boat?

Neat toy. I wouldn't mind having one. I wonder where they stole the motor design from, Briggs & Stratton or LawnBoy?

Seriously though. I wouldn't classify this thing as much of a threat. It does give some insight about the mentality of Iran's military. Iran has a lot of coastline and these things wouldn't require much in the way of support, so they could be dispersed over a wide area. Iran has to know, that in the event of war, it's fixed airbases are going to be wasted within 24 hours. These craft would have the advantage of survivability over the faster fixed-wing aircraft.

Another thing is that these could be used to provide terminal guidence for a surface to surface missile, using either radar or a laser designator.

As far as shooting these things down, it would present a few problems. These things might be too fast for helicopters, figure a top speed of about 130 mph for a Seahawk or Blackhawk and about 150-160 for a Sea Cobra or Apache.
Phalanx would wipe the skies clear of these things with no problem, but, if they are being used to guide missiles, they can accomplish their mission without having to get with in Phalanx's range. As far as Sea Sparrow or RAMs are concerned, it would be a crap shoot, you can forget the SM-2s and SM-3s completely. There would be an area near the ships where the SMs couldn't reach because of the parameters of the VLS system.

As far as aircraft are concerned, forget the F/A-18's. These things top speed is too close to the Hornet's stall speed. Harriers would have a turkey shoot, that might be fun to watch. If these things became an issue, I'd take a look at dusting off some OV-10's. OV-10's have operated from carriers in the past. They don't need catapults or arresting gear and some versions carried 4, 7.62mm mini-guns.

reply to post by FreeSpeaker

What say you ATS

I suspect they would be excellent at naval harassment. And they're probably very cheap, and easy to produce in large numbers. Also note that they will continue to be useful even if iranian landing strips are destroyed.

You can stick a few helicopeters on overwatch and most likely see these things coming from a long ways away.

Presuming you have helicopters to do so. And presuming you have helicopters available 24/7. And if you do...they take to the air and escape. And if you destroy a couple of them before they get away, so what? They don't look expensive to produce.


The purpose of these is not to destroy fleets. They're for hit and run tactics. They're for harrassment. They're for firing on lone ships, which then call for support which then has to arrive, meaning that support isn't somewhere else that might be more important. And if the US invades, the first priority will be to sieze and destroy iranian airfields. Iran has large bodies of water bordering it both to the north and to the south. You won't be able to destroy the Caspian Sea to prevent these things from landing and refueling on it, and from there they'll be able to provide air support to ground forces.

Maybe these will never sink a ship, but they don't need to. That's not what they're for.

The only thing this "flying boat" is good for is patrolling their canals, straights, and waterways. Even then
you can hear these nats a mile away. I am willing to bet that these air boats can't land or take off on the open
ocean with any wakes, the hulls look way to fragile.
Thats why you see all these test and runs on calm waters.
The only thing, maybe these boats are good at is spotting a raft of navy seals coming up the water way. That's
if they are not scuba diving underneath.

I TOLD YOU!11!!! I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE DOOM BOATS!!

but nooo....... YOU didn't listen to me!!!