Compared with steel ships, hovercraft is often more concerned by the public. After all, scarcity is precious. In the field of hovercraft, the former Soviet Union invested the most. Later, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia also inherited these hovercraft technologies, including the world's largest air-cushion warship, the Sea Lion-class air-cushion missile patrol boat.

Sea lion hovercraft:

This type of warship was launched in 1988, and only two warships were built. Its displacement has reached 800 tons, and the full-load displacement can reach thousands of tons. In terms of power, the sea lion class uses a hybrid power of gas and diesel, with a top speed of 100 km, almost 54 knots, far exceeding that of ordinary warships.

In terms of firepower, this type of warship is equipped with a 76 mm caliber main gun, two groups of quadruple-mounted eight SS-N-22 Japanese-baked missiles, 20 anti-aircraft missiles and two 30 mm caliber six-barrel guns. Once it participates in a naval battle, it can attack with eight Japanese-made missiles.

What is remarkable about this warship is its speed. After all, the speed of 54 knots is too shocking for a thousand-ton warship. The reason why it has such a fast speed is related to its structure.

The sides of the sea lion class hull are steel side walls, and the bow and stern are air cushion structures. Once its air cushion is filled with air, an air cavity will be formed between the air cushion structure and the two side walls, and then the bow will be lifted directly, thus greatly reducing the resistance of the hull when it moves forward.

In fact, the achievements of the Soviet Union in the field of hovercraft are quite great. From the black sea monster that shocked the world at first, to the bison landing ship later, and then to this sea lion hovercraft, it was quite shocking in the speed field. If the Soviet Union does not disintegrate, we may see some strange hovercraft based on the Soviet Union's research on hovercraft.

Defects of sea lion class:

However, the reason why hovercraft rarely appears now is inseparable from its own defects. Only two sea lion air cushion warships were built, mainly because of poor reliability. Sea lion hovercraft uses hybrid power because it needs a power system to tilt the bow. It uses two sets of gas turbines to maintain power and two diesel engines to lift the air cushion.

In other words, its main engine power has to go through four sets of transmission systems to reach the propeller. If it is placed on a steel warship, it is almost unimaginable for a thousand-ton warship to use four sets of transmission systems, and this structure also leads to its lower reliability than ordinary thousand-ton warships, which will affect the whole body. A slight problem with the power system will make the whole warship lie down.

Useless sea lion class:

Of course, only two sea lions were built, which was also related to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. After all, it was launched at 1988, three years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. At that time, even if the sea lion class is advanced, poor Russia will terminate the subsequent construction plan. Not to mention that the positioning of the sea lion class is a missile patrol boat, which is mainly used to combat smuggling, warship escort and other tasks, and its position in the navy itself is not the main one.

Now, the world's largest hovercraft is useless. Its tonnage and firepower make it difficult to join the frontal battlefield. In addition, the modern fleet system is more perfect and powerful, and it is more difficult for sea lions to participate in the frontal battlefield. So this smaller warship is basically performing some low-intensity tasks, such as surface patrol, anti-smuggling and so on.