Illustration idea for the US DARPA Liberty Lifter program
Aurora Flight Sciences
It’s not a ship. It’s not a aircraft. It’s a flying, sea-skimming craft known as an ekranoplan.
These massive automobiles paying homage to Soviet know-how from the Chilly Struggle are making a comeback as China and the US develop trendy variations for a doable navy confrontation within the Pacific.
The enormous sea skimmers resemble massive plane however are “extra akin to high-speed naval vessels in that they ‘fly’ a couple of metres above the ocean”, says Malcolm Davis on the Australian Strategic Coverage Institute. Such automobiles benefit from a phenomenon known as “wing-in-ground” impact, the place a cushion of air between the low-flying car and the water beneath can each help the car and cut back aerodynamic drag.
Such sea skimmers are sometimes sooner than ships – with speeds similar to plane – whereas additionally having the ability to keep away from floor or air radar detection, says Davis. They may stealthily and speedily ship cargo or troops throughout the lengthy ocean distances frequent within the Indo-Pacific area, or presumably launch shock anti-ship missile strikes on opposing navies, he says.
The know-how first gained notoriety throughout the Chilly Struggle, when the Soviet Union experimented with its ekranoplan design, together with a prototype nicknamed the “Capsian Sea Monster”. However they by no means absolutely took off due to a scarcity of funding and restricted usefulness for Soviet navy planners, says Davis. The present resurgence of curiosity in sea skimmers comes as China makes use of its increasing navy energy to press territorial claims over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
China started growing sea skimmer prototypes beginning within the early 2000s, says Ben Lewis, an unbiased defence analyst in Washington DC. Extra not too long ago, in June 2025, photos emerged from Chinese language social media displaying a big waterborne car with 4 jet engines mounted on prime of its wings, first reported by the analyst HI Sutton in Naval Information. China can be recruiting Russian know-how specialists who previously labored on the Soviet Union’s ekranoplan designs, in line with inside Russian intelligence paperwork obtained by the New York Occasions.
The US Protection Superior Analysis Tasks Company (DARPA) was funding the event of an analogous seaplane by means of its Liberty Lifter program from 2022. However this system led to June 2025 with out constructing a profitable craft. As a substitute, the company plans to encourage personal corporations and the broader US navy to take up the duty with classes discovered from the Liberty Lifter program.
Individually, the US firm Regent Craft has additionally been testing its all-electric seaglider model of such know-how for industrial use, which has drawn curiosity from the US Marine Corps.
Such sea skimmers “might show reasonably priced and affordable alternate options to costlier conventional plane” because the know-how and manufacturing strategies advance, says Brendan Mulvaney on the US Air Pressure’s China Aerospace Research Institute in Alabama. However, he cautioned, “they don’t seem to be going to be the spine of any pressure, and nearly actually gained’t survive trendy high-intensity fight”. Such sea skimmers might additionally face difficulties working in tough situations, which aren’t unusual within the Taiwan Strait and different waters of East Asia, says Lewis.
Nonetheless, sea skimmers may very well be one a part of a broader Chinese language navy technique to counter US and allied naval forces which will deploy in help of Taiwan, says Davis. The US has responded by boosting navy cooperation with regional allies, reminiscent of South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, whereas searching for to strengthen Pacific Island territories as navy bases. The opportunity of battle for either side has “actually elevated the necessity for the exploration of extra novel capabilities” that may present an “additional edge”, says Lewis.
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