We are getting our first full look at China’s wing-in-ground effect (WIG) craft. It was first identified last week by our friend and submarine warfare analyst HI Sutton. You can read his initial post at Naval News here. It was originally spotted in an image with its nose section obscured. In that image, the flying-boat-hulled aircraft was pictured sitting on a pier situated on the Bohai Sea, which sits at the northwestern reach of the Yellow Sea.
As we have discussed many times before, the Soviet Union was famed for its experimentation and semi-operational use of large WIG craft known as Ekranoplans. The capability and tactical concepts surrounding it never really caught on en-masse, but we are currently experiencing a renaissance of sorts for large WIG aircraft that aim to race above the thick air above the water with relative efficiency and speed (most can fly less efficiently at higher altitudes too). The U.S. is developing just such an aircraft, the Liberty Lifer, in hopes that it could be used to deliver heavy cargo, personnel and materiel to far-flung locales across the great expanses of the Pacific. In doing so it would help reduce some of the Pentagon’s looming logistic woes were it to fight across such a large theater.
In the case of this mysterious aircraft being tested by China, it is loosely similar in scale to what we have seen of their new amphibious flying boat, the AG600, which is intended to perform resupply, search and rescue, and other missions, especially over the South China Sea. This WIG aircraft appears ideally suited for similar applications in the littorals.