greetings in this video we'll be talking about China's Mega hovercraft the type 728 air cushioned landing craft or lcac for short these are large Landing crafts designed for transporting and unloading a small force of around 50 or 60 men and a small number of armored vehicles over a short distance the type 728s are Chinese versions of the Soviet origin project 12 2.2 landing craft with the NATO reporting name the promer however they are much better known unofficially by the name the Zuber class
Zuber is the Russian word for the European bison which are strong swimmers across small bodies of water such as rivers and lakes as of 2023 the Zuber class in the type 728 adds 555 tons fa load are the world's largest hovercraft development of the Zuber landing craft started in the former Soviet Union in 1978 with design work continuing in the first half of the 1980s the Soviet armed forces and now the Russian and Ukrainian forces have a need for short range amphibious capabilities especially in
Western Russia along the Black Sea and the Baltic there's a large number of important islands off the coast in these theaters the control of which is important for securing the nearby sea Lanes this also important ports and Naval bases to be defended not least of which is Sesto and Theodosia in Crimea odisa and Novo rosis and large hovercraft provide the Strategic Mobility to shuffle troops around at Short notice the first group of hovercraft entered service in 1986 after the collapse of the So
viet Union in 1991 the vessels under construction were promptly scrapped and most of the active units from the Black Sea Fleet were transferred to Ukraine although Russia kept two vessels for its own use in the Baltic Fleet as we will see the new states of Ukraine maintain the ability to build this hovercraft Ukraine will later sell one of the zubas to Greece and build three more boats for Greece it is also Ukraine not Russia that would later build the zubra for China's PA Navy in mid 2003 China
expressed interest in purchasing the Zuber class from Ukraine however there were delays in the negotiations to fine- tune the det details and also to avoid antagonizing Russia through misunderstandings in July 2009 China and Ukraine reached an agreement under which Ukraine will sell four units to China and to transfer the knowhow for building the Zuber class to China so that China can build more in the future if they want to two vessels will be built by Ukraine and the other two will be assembl
ed in China from components provided by Ukraine the final price tag was a lowly $315 million the first unit was built at the fiod doia ship building company in Crimea and adapted to Chinese needs so that no military weapons or electrical systems were installed the first unit was delivered to the Chinese Navy in May 2013 and was assigned the whole number 332 25 Ukraine turned over the second units to China in February 2014 and was designated 3326 after the first units had already entered service
the situation around Crimea involving escalation between Ukraine and Russia in 2014 and later the Russian annexation of Crimea led to complications in the project nevertheless this Ukraine successfully fulfilled its obligations to China under the terms of the contract providing the components for building two more ships in China despite the difficulties from the loss of Crimea China then buils two more vessels out of these components designating these the sh27 and the sh stre 28 with a length of
57 M and a beam of 25.6 M the Zuber has the largest dimension for an lcac it has a cargo area of 400 square m it has a normal displacement of 400 tons and a full load displacement of 555 tons giving a payload for the cargo of 150 tons it can carry three main battle tanks each at 50 tons or five light tanks or around six infantry fighting Vehicles either the pla's zbd 04 or the more advanced zbl 08 plus a complement of around 60 infantry alternatively The Vessel can just carry personnel only in
which case it could be loaded in theory with 500 infantrymen 360 in the cargo hold and 140 on the deck the stern door and ramp have a width of around half of the cargo area while the Bell ramp is slightly larger the cargo hold spans the full length of the craft allowing for full roll on roll off capability powered by two supercharging gas turbines and propelled by three four bladed propellers the Zuber class can sustain a speed of an incredible 55 knot what makes the Zuber important is the combi
nation of a large cargo capacity and a sustained high speed models built by Ukraine for the pla Navy reportedly travel at a top speed of 63 knot maximum range is 480 km although in practice the operational range will be lower in May 2023 social media images confirmed the the construction of purely theistically produced Zuber Hovercraft in China the new production consisted of two units with the second units identified in July bring the total number for the type 728 in the pla Navy to six vessels
the new vessels were given the designation the 3260 and the 3261 unlike the previous vels which were either bu overseas were built in China but with foreign kit China built the new lcac completely on its own and demonstrated a Mastery of the technical requirements for building this class the new Vel feature minor differences to the four vehicles built previously the old Electro Optical Fire Control System for the closin weapon systems is replaced by a Fire Control radar in the same place the tw
o six barrel closin weapon systems or seers are moved forward the seers were moved to where the retractable multiple launch rocket systems were previously located and the Mast carrying navigation Radars and communication equipment is redesigned as with all ear cushioned landing craft one limitation of the zubba is the ca condition or the sea State The Vessel can operate under in fact the Zuber is designed for the fairly calm conditions of the Black Sea it is only seaworthy in conditions up to Se
a States 4 which equivalate to moderate sea any rougher and the craft would not be considered seaworthy the height of the Waves should not exceed 2 m on average and wind speed should should be at or less than 12 km per hour so these material restrictions on what constitutes ideal conditions for the operation of the Zuber class for these reasons I don't believe they are intended for use against Taiwan the weather in the Taiwan Straits can be very rough at times and if unlucky this could imp the e
ffectiveness of the Zuber lcac in a Taiwan situ ation the pla Navy has deployed all6 units of the type 728 in the south sea Fleet operating in the South China Sea rather than the East sea Fleet facing Taiwan and this is consistent with my view that they are not intended for a Taiwan scenario the planned total figure of the type 728 remains unknown and the scale of future production is still to be confirmed nevertheless the recent construction of new vessels suggest the pl n intends to use them o
n a larger scale than previously thought the appearance of new Zuber hovercraft is an interesting part of China's effort to expand its amphibious Warfare capability alongside the continued expansion of its amphibious Warfare Fleet the type 720 eight Zuber class can deliver follow on forces to reinforce a beach head with heavy equipment and logistical support thus they can play a crucial role in an opposed Landing
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