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US Marines Demonstrate Ultra Heavy-Lift Amphibious Connector Prototype
Zothecula writes In a recent demonstration carried out during RIMPAC 2014, the US Marines displayed and tested a fully-functional, half-scale prototype of its new amphibious transport vehicle. The proposed full-size version of the Ultra Heavy-Lift Amphibious Connecter (UHAC) is designed to power across the water with a payload of nearly 200 tons at up to 20 knots and be capable of driving up on to the shore and over the top of obstructions up to 10ft high.
That is what is important. Whatchgonnado?
The thing it carries from the ship, through the surf zone, over the sand and onto the hard ground has the killing power -- an M1 Abrams main battle tank.
Don't know why but I kind of feel like I have seen something like this before.... The ww2 landing vehicle tracked (LVT) looked very similar to this, just on a much smaller scale.
Some of the variants even used paddled tracks like this. oblig wiki link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
At 200 Tons capacity, it could carry three.
This would have over three times the capacity of the LCAC. I'm not sure what they're planning to haul on it (3 tanks, maybe?). There certainly is construction equipment that weights 200 tons, or industrial equipment.
This has three times the capacity of the LCAC but takes up the same amount of space in an Amphibious Assault Carrier. So even though it is half the speed, it will be able to transfer equipment to shore at a 50% greater rate than LCAC.
It's mainly designed to carry huge budgets.
It looks pretty much like a tank on flip-flops.
It's usual for Gizmag to have this article posted yesterday? Outside of Alice in Wonderland, what would that even mean?
That would be weird... the Romans named the area Palestine when the Jews were living there. Why would anyone want to give the land to Arabs?
No, the thing it caries from the ship, through the surf zone, over sand and onto hard ground that has the killing power are the U.S. Marines.
Sorry, someone has to say it.
Give Amerikka back to the large mammal species that the Native Americans drove into extinction (there were horses on North America, and giant sloths the size of bears, and many other large mammals) shortly after they arrived here over the Bering Straight.
The Indians didn't have horses again to ride until the Europeans broght them over and showed the noble wise red men how to ride, not eat, them.
At 200 Tons capacity, it could carry three.
due to comment scores I could see your comment but not the parent and my response was "What, Americans?"
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm glad I'm living in a landlocked country.
the land-sea capability of the UHAC is provided buy a set of tracks – similar to a tank – fitted with captured-air foam cells that provide buoyancy, act as paddles when in the water, and behave as track-driven pads when on the land
The first thing that came to mind was bubble-wrap.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
At 200 Tons capacity, it could carry three.
This just goes to show how obesity has become a real problem for the American military.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
About as much "valie" as making sure one's post is free of typos like "Cooyimg".
I still hum that little tune they did with the musical cheat or whatever it was... You are talking about the rts right?
Wanna buy a shirt?
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No one. Read about the LCACs; they are maintenance beasts and the Marines are reducing their number by half. This thing looks a bit maintenance heavy too, but with 3X the carrying capacity it's still a cost savings in terms of cost/ton carried.
These are used not just to invade, but on humanitarian missions as well. They're one of the few craft that can land on a ravaged or destroyed or undeveloped coastline, and with a 200 ton carrying capacity they can carry some seriously heavy construction equipment. That allows the marines to drop in engineers that can build up a temporary dock in a ravaged place like during the 2004 Tsunami or the Haiti earthquake, allowing for cargo ships to land with relief supplies and medical personnel.
The military's primary mission is to project the nation's will through force when called to do so, but that is not their only mission. They are a well equipped, well disciplined, highly trained force, which makes them the best first responders in all sorts of crises.
It does seem odd that a defense budget would need to pony up so much for craft that are only useful for invading.
Sometimes you are invading to defend a friendly nation. See D-Day, and Incheon.
Other times you are bringing large amounts of help to a nation see Haiti after the earthquake.
Also it probably is not that expensive.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Now we can continue to kill people of no threat to us, in greater and greater numbers!
For some reason, roughly half the apparent street traffic in Beantown is amphibious tour vehicles. What's it going to be like when these things replace the current WW II design?
200 tons of marines.
Each marine carries between 97 and 135 lbs of equipmen so let's just say an average of 116 pounds. Let's say the average marine weighs 181 (I took 6'2" as the height marker and average weight between max and minimum weight for that height by their own charts). So one marine puts a load of 297 pounds. This monster is capable of carrying 1346 combat geared marines (space not-withstanding). That about an entire marine brigade.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
Though after reviewing the dimensions..... 1346 marines would be a bit beyond its capability unless you're stacking them like a lincoln logs.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
And the last time Marines stormed a beach was? The last time US ground forces were put in the fight prior to aerial decimation of the opposition was?
A transport configured LCAC can carry 180 fully equipped troops. The full size UHAC will have similar dimensions so I don't imagine it will carry much more than a company at a time. With the much larger carrying capacity though it'll be able to move a lot more heavy equipment per load which means consolidating the beachhead and moving inland should go much faster.
On the trail of the F-35, a plane that is underpowered, can't fly in the rain, or at night, or most anytime else it seems, that breaks when it does get flown, and is basically a complete waste of 1.4 trillion dollars (and climbing).... we have congress pressing forward with a super-sized landing craft because they're used just so often by our forces... assuming we're still in the 1940's.
Wonder where the government wastes money? Look no further.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Just as a reference, a typicle semi truck running down the highway will have almost 50,000 lbs carying capacity or roughly 25 tons. And these are not built to operate off road or with debris in the road. So if one of these shows up with supplies for disaster relief or whatever, its about the same as trucking in 12 fully loaded semis -or more if you figure the reduced hauling capacity from suring them up to operate in those conditions.
Turret would allow it to play secondary role of a scout.
Now that I think about it, turret like that is perfect for a gun!
Lets not forget to put some armor on it now that it has this scary gun, and tow missiles.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
It's a coffin. It's slow, easily seen, loud.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
These tracks are side by side. Marines always move single file to hide their numbers.
The ability to run over objects ten feet in height means this critter is getting close to being able to run over homes. At its weight it could be a crushingly good weapon eliminating entire suburbs like Godzilla smashing homes with its feet. Remember the guy who stole a tank and crushed cars all over town?
In the current terrorist, not nation state world, what does this service.
Except to waste my tax dollars!
I agree with you but only partially. A D-Day style beach invasion with today's tech would truly be suicidal. These days though, no amphibious assault would be considered without air- and naval-superiority being firmly established with a control zone measured in the hundreds of miles around the beachhead first.
Only an adversary of similar tech-level would be a threat since there is no real defence against super long range missile artillery like cruise missiles. The UHAC's advantage here is that it will be a small (relatively speaking) moving target, not some bunker with a fixed ventilation port.
I'm saying the Native Americans were a stone age culture, one that drove horses to extinction without ever figuring out how to tame and ride them.
Granted, the humans who ate almost all of the large mammals to extinction were many generations back from the more evolved Native Americans that the first European settlers encountered.
The European settlers didn't decimate the American Bison out of stupidity, incidentally. It was impossible to build a transcontinental railroad system with the huge bison herds intact. When a million bison rumble over some railroad tracks, there's nothing left there but an unpleasant surprise for the next train to encounter.
It also helped the European settlers subjugate the Indians to take away their resource supply, but that was secondary to the impossibility of a railroad while the buffalo herds roamed the land.