3 ms·

It's as impractical as it's cool. While faster than any warship of similar capacity, it has a huge turning radius and requires a lot of power to take off (if yo

• masklinn 6y ago
  > While faster than any warship of similar capacity OTOH a "warship of similar capacity" is a large-ish patrol boat, Lun-class is about the same weight as a Cyclone-class. It's really not much of a warship.
  • willvarfar 6y ago
    The Lun was very heavily armed! NATO considered it a super fast patrol boat, and the soviets really doubled down on missile boats. The range of the Lun’s missiles out ranged its radar, which was a problem that missile boats of that era also had. Nato imagined that a forward Lun would act as scout for the rest etc with lots of coordination. The Lun’s problem was that by the time it entered trials the soviet missile boats were being fitted with a over horizon radar that the Lun couldn’t carry. That, and the end of the Cold War, of course. http://www.hisutton.com/Russian-Navy-Ekranoplan-WIG.html http://www.hisutton.com/Russian-Navy-Ekranoplan-WIG.html
    • masklinn 6y ago
      I'm not saying it wasn't heavily armed, I'm saying all things considered it was a very small warship — though a very fast one; and it was extremely expensive compared to the warships you'd expect at the end of the scale, so not really matching the missions those'd usually have: the advantage of patrol or missile boats is that they're cheap and they're relatively easy to crew, but a Lun would be neither of those.
• mhh__ 6y ago
  > if you have ever seen a swan take flight you know what I mean The best motivation a rower can have is a swan trying to give you a push up the river.