I still remain unimpressed. A high speed conventional landing craft would seem a cheaper and better solution...especially if they're sticking with this 200 miles off shore meme.
Which brings me to a serious question.
This has been worked on and supposedly their was a simpler solution that was under consideration but appears to have been discarded.
The LCU-R.
Why hasn't this concept gotten a fair hearing?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyugon-class_landing_craft
ReplyDeleteThe UHAC is growing on me. The problem with traditional LCU is they are beach head limited, can't cross reefs, shore embankments, etc... The UHAC will have access to beaches as wide as the LCAC if not wider (don't think a LCAC could take such a steep embankment). Those big tracks would probably also take some pretty good punishment at least from shrapnel and missiles (volume in such cases are often better than actual armor). Bottom line is being able to land were the enemy isn't, and not being beholden to tides, is critical to any future landings. I would say more so than a few extra knots of speed. Any landing will be well prepped and likely have large amounts of firepower on hair to respond to any threats that dare pop up. Regardless the threats hit targets at 20 knots as good as they can 30 knots.
ReplyDeleteI don't know... The shiny metal on the forward edge of each track seems to be there to try and protect/support the foam treads that make the whole thing float. I imagine the UHAC's glacial on-land speed in those test videos is also to avoid stressing the foam.
DeleteBlow off a significant enough chunk of the foam with explosive rounds and the whole thing will move about as well as a car with a flat tire. Worse possibly, as it might not have enough torque to elevate itself back up on the foam that's left.
Plus... capacity? All that bulk/complexity just to be able to carry a couple of jeeps or Humvees? What about tanks?
This is only a small proof-of-concept prototype. The production version is planned to be much bigger, if the program makes it that far.
Deletehttp://www.guns.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/UHAC-2.jpg
http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/634348266.jpg?1344601379
The sheer size of the final concept would negate some of my concerns about the foam. Though that's a very big, slow target.
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