China Resurrects A Soviet Water-Skimming Plane Design In Secret

China appears to have built a new prototype of a mostly ignored military aircraft; a Wing-in-Ground Effect (WIG) plane. Also commonly known by the Russian word ekranoplan, it’s a type of aircraft designed specifically to fly close to the surface of the sea at an altitude of just 3-16 feet. If true, the reinvigoration of technology mostly ignored outside of Russia could speak volumes to what the Chinese military is planning for its long-term capabilities given the importance of littoral and island operations to any potential conflict with China. In fact, China is actively trying to recruit Russian experts for exactly that reason.

First spied by Naval News and now confirmed by pictures on social media, Ekranoplans might seem like a bit of an awkward design at first. Why bother skimming just above the surface of the sea when a normal plane can just fly tens of thousands of feet in the air? Indeed, the relative obscurity of the aircraft means that most operators have reached that very conclusion. No military has used an ekranoplan except the Soviet Union. They are, however, on the verge of a comeback. Several civilian startups are looking to bring the design back for shipping purposes, and right now, the Pentagon is toying with the idea of bringing them into service. The WIG design does have a couple of advantages that, in the current strategic environment, start to look very enticing.

A wing works by directing the flow of air over it at speed, which creates lift. That’s nice, but ekranoplans go further by intentionally bouncing the air beneath the wing down towards the surface, which then bounces that air back up into the wing again (a “ground effect”). That’s a bunch of additional lift available at much lower speeds, meaning it’s much more fuel efficient than a typical plane. The catch, of course, is that the vehicle needs to stay super low to benefit from that ground effect.

Over land, that’s pretty useless, since trees exist. But over sea, at least in calm waters, this is feasible, which is why Soviet designs were all seaborne. That made for a vehicle that was faster than a boat (since boats have to slog through the actual water), more fuel efficient than a plane, and flew too low to be seen by radar as a bonus. Best of all, they set down and took off from the sea itself. In the near future, that could matter a lot.

Would you like to control $5 trillion per year? So would China. Per Business Insider, that’s about how much trade value sails through the South China Sea every year. And increasingly, China is claiming that territory as its own. Partly, it’s doing this by literally building brand-new islands on which it builds entire military bases. Sometimes, it will claim a barely there spit of land, and then declare that it therefore has claim to the sea around it, too. Not we must mention the obvious; Taiwan is an island.

If there is to be some sort of military conflict involving China, expect the South China Sea and its islands to play a central role. That means whoever’s fighting will want to be able to get troops and supplies out there, even if those islands don’t have a lot in the way of airfields or runways. This is a hugely limiting factor for conventional transport aircraft, but not so much for ekranoplans.

Since WIGs “land” on the sea, not the land, they just don’t care about runways at all. Provided the waves are calm enough, they can go to pretty much any shoreline. Old Soviet versions could carry hundreds of troops or even a couple of tanks, per China Talk. A few were even missile boats, er, planes, er…you get it. 

The Pentagon never did make its own ekranoplans to counter the Soviets, but now it’s rethinking that decision. As detailed in The War Zone, right now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is experimenting with a Liberty Lifter program, which is trying to create an American WIG with the carrying capacity of a C-130 or maybe even a C-17. Both General Atomics and Aurora Flight Sciences have contracts to build prototypes; you can see a computer animation of the latter above.

It seems island hopping is coming into fashion like it’s the Pacific theater of World War II. Trouble is, who already knows how to design these things? Answer: Russians, since they’re the only people who have ever built them for military purposes. A recent classified report from Russia’s own security service, obtained by the New York Times, says that Chinese spies are actively trying to recruit Russian scientists and engineers: “Priority recruitment is given to former employees of aircraft factories and research institutes, as well as current employees who are dissatisfied with the closure of the ekranoplan development program by the Russian Ministry of Defense or who are experiencing financial difficulties.”

One thing of note: The tail apparatus on the Chinese aircraft, in a T-shape with two stabilizers, looks identical to the Aurora Flight Sciences tail apparatus. Given that China made the J-20 stealth fighter plane (pictured) by stealing the designs of the F-35, as Sandboxx recounts, it’s possible there’s already been some industrial espionage on China’s part.

We don’t really know much for certain about this aircraft or what the Chinese are planning to do with it, and, understandably, they aren’t exactly being forthcoming. Maybe the design will go nowhere, or maybe the tests won’t turn out how they hope, or maybe plain old boats are just a cheaper option. Then again, maybe ekranoplans are the future of Pacific military operations.