@russian_explorer: The Soviet monster ☠️ The Lun-class ekranoplan is one of the most unusual and daring creations of Soviet engineering. It was born during the Cold W*r, when the USSR was searching for ways to counter American aircraft carrier groups. The idea was to build a combat machine that combined the speed of an airplane with the payload capacity of a ship, while remaining practically invisible to radar. The “Lun” appeared — a giant 73 meters long and weighing almost 400 tons. From the outside it looked like something between a plane and a ship: it had wings like an aircraft, but its body resembled a seagoing vessel. Its eight turbofan engines were mounted in the nose and directed their powerful thrust under the wings, generating lift and allowing the machine to “stick” to the water’s surface. It flew just 4–5 meters above the sea — the height where the ground-effect phenomenon occurs, letting a massive craft skim over the waves with minimal drag. For a ship, its speed was incredible — up to 550 kilometers per hour. To put this in perspective: a modern destroyer can reach about 60 km/h at best. The “Lun” could cross the Caspian Sea in just a few hours, delivering devastating firepower to its target. And its armament was formidable: six supersonic “Moskit” anti-ship missiles were mounted on its back, capable of breaking through almost any defense system and striking large warships, including aircraft carriers. Despite these grand ambitions, only one combat “Lun” was ever built. A second unit was planned as a search-and-rescue craft, but the project was never completed. Limitations in seaworthiness, operational challenges, and the economic crisis of the late 1980s prevented ekranoplans from taking a permanent place in the Soviet fleet. Today, the “Lun” rests on the shores of the Caspian Sea, a reminder of how bold and unconventional Soviet engineering could be.

Dmitry Gornaev

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Region: NL

Monday 22 June 2026 14:34:42 GMT