Illustration idea for the US DARPA Liberty Lifter program
Aurora Flight Sciences
It’s not a ship. It’s not a airplane. It’s a flying, sea-skimming craft known as an ekranoplan.
These giant automobiles paying homage to Soviet know-how from the Chilly Struggle are making a comeback as China and the US develop fashionable variations for a potential navy confrontation within the Pacific.
The large sea skimmers resemble giant 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” effect, the place a cushion of air between the low-flying automobile and the water under can each assist the automobile and scale back aerodynamic drag.
Such sea skimmers are usually 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 widespread within the Indo-Pacific area, or probably launch shock anti-ship missile strikes on opposing navies, he says.
The know-how first gained notoriety through 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 an absence 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 creating sea skimmer prototypes beginning within the early 2000s, says Ben Lewis, an unbiased defence analyst in Washington DC. Extra just lately, in June 2025, pictures emerged from Chinese language social media exhibiting a big waterborne automobile with 4 jet engines mounted on prime of its wings, first reported by the analyst HI Sutton in Naval News. China can be recruiting Russian know-how specialists who previously labored on the Soviet Union’s ekranoplan designs, in accordance with inside Russian intelligence paperwork obtained by the New York Times.
The US Protection Superior Analysis Tasks Company (DARPA) was funding the event of an analogous seaplane via 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 non-public corporations and the broader US navy to take up the duty with classes realized 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 business use, which has drawn curiosity from the US Marine Corps.
Such sea skimmers “could 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 Drive’s China Aerospace Research Institute in Alabama. However, he cautioned, “they aren’t going to be the spine of any pressure, and virtually definitely gained’t survive fashionable high-intensity fight”. Such sea skimmers may additionally face difficulties working in tough circumstances, 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 assist of Taiwan, says Davis. The US has responded by boosting navy cooperation with regional allies, similar to South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, whereas in search of to bolster Pacific Island territories as navy bases. The potential of battle for each 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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