What is the largest military hovercraft in the world? The answer is "European bison", which is also a legacy left by the Soviet Union. The design and production were completed by the King Kong Design Bureau of the Soviet Union in 1983, and it is still the largest, fastest and most powerful hovercraft in the world.
This unprecedented large hovercraft has a displacement of 555 tons, which is almost the size of two basketball courts. Five "NK- 12mV" gas turbines with the same origin as the "NK-12" engine in Figure 95 are used as power, and a single one outputs 10000 horsepower, of which three are used as four-blade variable pitch propellers to drive the bison forward.
It can be said that the power of the hovercraft is very abundant, with an amazing speed of up to 63 knots.
It is fully loaded with 56 tons of fuel at a time and has a cruising capacity of 300 nautical miles (540 kilometers). Fast speed and super adaptability. It can land on 70% of the world's coastline, meet the wall-shaped water barrier with a height of 1.6 meters, and even many mines are ineffective. It has unparalleled advantages in landing on the beach. Its maximum transport load is 150 tons, and it can carry: 3 main battle tanks /8 amphibious tanks/10 armored vehicles+140 soldiers, or 8 armored personnel carriers+140 soldiers, or 500 armed soldiers.
At the same time, the Buffalo hovercraft has good fire attack and self-defense ability during landing. It is equipped with two modular AK-630-30mm six-barrel guns and MTU-2 short-range air defense missiles, and has 16x 2 for self-defense. It is also equipped with two MS-227/22 rockets and 66 X2s for attacking beachhead fire when landing. It can be said that buffalo is very strong. At the same time, if necessary, bison can also use its speed advantage to carry mines and quickly block the port.
The bison is strong, but it was born at the wrong time. It was born in the late Soviet Union and didn't have many services. When the Soviet Union disintegrated, eight bison were built and distributed to Russia and Ukraine, but the decline of Russia and Ukraine made the world's largest hovercraft completely useless.
On the contrary, in view of its long coastline, numerous island disputes in the South China Sea, and a province in the southeast, China signed a contract with Ukraine in 2009 to introduce four bison and transfer the whole set of technology, of which two were made in Ukraine and two were authorized to produce. Although China purchased a complete set of technology transfer contracts, after manufacturing and receiving four bison, there was no follow-up. Is the high-priced imported technology wasted?
Recently, however, a brand-new large-scale air-cushion landing ship named Bison appeared, with the ship number 5260. It should be the first domestic Bison air-cushion ship in China, belonging to the southern war zone. Different from the European "Bison", the two near-defense guns of the domestic "Bison" moved forward obviously, and the ship-island lighting radar and the suspected photoelectric sensing system device enabled the Bison to complete a more accurate attack on land and air. As for the engine, I don't know whether it is a domestic model or a domestic version of "NK- 12MV" gas turbine, but its performance should be improved compared with the old version. Will its speed and range be greater?
The appearance of domestic new bison hovercraft not only shows that we have completely absorbed and transformed the technology of bison hovercraft, but also continues to build it. This amphibious ship can run 550 kilometers without stuffing it into its stomach, which plays a great role in recovering all kinds of large islands and small islands in China, especially after we complete the reclamation of islands in the South China Sea, the bison hovercraft will have more room to play. As for the long-distance transportation of bison, since we have 90,000 tons of semi-submersible boats, this problem is no longer a problem.