Epic sight from a russian hovercraft/ship/destroyer/ starwars cruiser lol.

Just posted on RT


Look at the size of that thing! Mighty impressive.

Not much to say about, just wanted to share

A shocked crowd of holiday-makers at a beach near Russia’s western city of Kaliningrad had to make way for a landing craft carrier which unexpectedly slid onto the shore on its air cushion.

The video of the incident, taken by one of the beach-goers, was posted online on Tuesday. It features the amphibious landing craft “Zubr” (“Bison”), sailing on its air cushion, raising huge waves and a making loud noise as it approached a crowded beach in Mechnikovo, Kaliningrad region and eventually slid onto the shore packed with people.

No one was hurt in the incident, following which marines descended from the vessel and cordoned it off. Russia’s Ministry of Defense explained the ship was out for a regular drill and said the beach actually belonged to the military.

“Docking at the beach is a regular practice, what we don’t know is what people were doing at the beach, which is within the military firing range,” an official at the Ministry of Defense said. as cited by Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

The Ministry also says the ship was cordoned off to guarantee the security of the holiday-makers.

“After the drill was over, the cordon was removed and the ship sailed back to its base,” said Andrey Bespaly, of the PR department for the Baltic Fleet Western military district.

I can't help catch the part about how the beach is part of the Military base and actually a section of their live firing range.

Lucky for the idiots on the beach, the Military hadn't scheduled live ordinance practice that day. Say, repelling amphibious assaults? They'd have discovered more than holes in the sand when going out to check result.

Amazing piece of equipment, and im suprised these Hovercrafts arent more widly adopted by more than just a few navies around the world. I can just see the captain of the ship saying. " More Vodka please, And dont worry about the people on the beach, they will move. Speaking Russian"

Nice ship. Based on the beach-goers it must be a 'free' beach as well.

Watch the mum with the baby.

Yea, great ship!

P

For me its the size, really, that's like an aircraft carrier on balloons. It also looks like quite descent tech if you ask me.

Having the craft pull up to shore in that spot must be a regular, or at least predictable, occurance.

The crowd, to me, seemed so relaxed as this bohemoth came to shore that at first I though it was a hoax video.
But then I noticed the crowd was positioned in a pattern like they were expecting to see it.

Like at an airshow., but with a hovercraft

reply to post by Glassbender777


Really cool craft, but stop to think about your being "surprised" that the craft aren't used more.
What are they good for? Beach landings? That was the old days. When did that last happen? Those days are gone. Where would you use them? Basically, only to run up onto your own beaches as we see in the video. You ain't gonna travel any distance across a sea to invade some other country with these toys. But, yeah, great for attacking your own beaches.

Perhaps I should add that for D-Day in Europe, the allies owned the air over the beaches. That is the key to a successful invasion, not the manner of craft used to get the troops onshore.

That's probably just Putin's normal ride to the beach. At the end he high dives off the ship in his speedo.

The hovercraft is clearing enjoying its shore leave, catching some waves and some rays!

reply to post by Aliensun
I agree......
The most feasible use for this type of machine would be as a transport or re-supplier. not in the initial wave of an frontal assault.
I don't see how a big slow moving target like this type hovercraft would last long under enemy defenses/attack.

**It was either during the first or second Gulf War that I recall watching, on TV, a USMC hovercraft make a landing somewhere under Iraqi "control". The premise was given it was an operation to secure an oil supply depot (If i recall correctly)

During the broadcast it was mentioned that the area had been pretty well gone over by Apaches A-10s and or other air support before hand.

It was an uneventful landing and I remember thinking the whole Hovercraft involvement unneccasary and more or less for show and practice or to justify the craft existence.

A few artillary or the right tank rounds could have really messed it up.

I also found it interesting that the area was secure and safe enough to allow for the event to be recorded and broadcast. I was more than just a snippet of news. Showing the craft approach from the sea, land on the beach and troops and equipment deploy.

P.S. from your post: "You ain't gonna travel any distance across a sea to invade some other country with these toys. But, yeah, great for attacking your own beaches." It got me thinking maybe it deflates and folds up like rubber raft?!?! or they tie it on the aircraft carrier deck like you would a raft to your van..........

Ah but they aren't too fond of China all the time now are they?

reply to post by Senduko


Bison? American? Does Russia have plans to add to our indigenous bison population with their own "bison"?

reply to post by Senduko


That looks like a pretty massive hovercraft there. Just a normal day in Russia I guess.

“Docking at the beach is a regular practice, what we don’t know is what people were doing at the beach, which is within the military firing range,” an official at the Ministry of Defense said. as cited by Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.
...
“After the drill was over, the cordon was removed and the ship sailed back to its base,” said Andrey Bespaly, of the PR department for the Baltic Fleet Western military district.

Something smells fishy here, it sounds more like they made some kind of mistake but don't want to admit to it..
There's over 100 people at that beach, a beach within a military firing range. Surely a crowd that large wouldn't go unnoticed prior to this vessel pulling up, and they just sail off and let these people stay at this beach on a firing range?!?!?!? Well this is Russia after all.

Waves to weather.com ahaha

waves to russian military..

Hi mom, bob, petey.. jonah.. and riley.

*waves to the tv*



In soviet russia, boat rides you.

Originally posted by Kr0nZ

“Docking at the beach is a regular practice, what we don’t know is what people were doing at the beach, which is within the military firing range,” an official at the Ministry of Defense said. as cited by Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.
...
“After the drill was over, the cordon was removed and the ship sailed back to its base,” said Andrey Bespaly, of the PR department for the Baltic Fleet Western military district.

Something smells fishy here, it sounds more like they made some kind of mistake but don't want to admit to it..
There's over 100 people at that beach, a beach within a military firing range. Surely a crowd that large wouldn't go unnoticed prior to this vessel pulling up, and they just sail off and let these people stay at this beach on a firing range?!?!?!? Well this is Russia after all.

Well the Russian military is not what one would call all that focused on details anymore. They are happy if most of the guys show up and are sober. They still have fine special operation forces and elite units and such but, the over all military has been a poorly lead heavly corrupt mess for years.

On a side note the Russian have two of these things and so does Unkraine. Oddly enough the Greeks lead the way with 4 of them.

USMC version. Unloading and pulling back out to the mothership (Wasp class). Nice day at Bellows Beach, Hawaii.

Does not the US have a few as well, equipped with missiles?

They used to use, much smaller ones to transport cars and passengers between the UK and France. That was some time ago, guess they were too expensive so stopped the service. Wangled a ride in the bridge, its approach to landing was like a low flying aircraft. Real noisy, spray everywhere. Great fun.