Call it part tank, part boat and part beer
cooler. But it's unquestionably all cool.
It's a new U.S. Marine Corps vehicle for getting
stuff like troops, tanks and trucks from ships to
shore and back.
The Corps showed off a prototype of its Ultra
Heavy-lift Amphibious Connector (UHAC) last
week during Rim of the Pacific exercises in
Hawaii, running it from the Navy's amphibious
dock landing ship USS Rushmore to the beaches
of Marine Corps Training Area Bellows on Oahu.
"Showcasing the UHAC during RIMPAC
is a big deal," Dave George of the
Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, which
developed the UHAC with funding from
the Office of Naval Research, said in a
press release. "This is a great way to
let people know that this new
technology is being developed."
Here's how the UHAC works: The
tracks, which are made of what the
Marines call "captured-air foam
blocks," extend like flippers to propel
the craft through the water. When it
hits the beach, the foam flattens to
become like the tracks on a tank or a
bulldozer, only much softer, according
to a report from Stars and Stripes.
Last week, the UHAC prototype, which is about
half the size of envisioned production models,
carried an assault vehicle from the Rushmore to
the beach. The Marine Corps says a full-size
UHAC would be able to carry much more.
"The full-scale model should be able to carry at
least three tanks and a HMMVW (High Mobility
Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle)," Gunnery Sgt.
Joseph Perera, the Warfighting Lab's Infantry
Weapons Project officer, said in a statement.
That's about three times the load that the Corps'
current craft assigned to the task, called a
Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), can handle.
It also will be able to surmount bigger obstacles.
While an LCAC can only get over a 4-foot-high
sea wall, a full-size UHAC will be able to get over
sea walls as high as 10, 12 or even 16 feet,
according to the Corps.
The UHAC prototype type is not armored or
armed, but Perera said production models would
have armor plating and a .50-caliber machine
guns for protection.
They also would be much faster. The prototype
could only go 5 mph on the water, but a full-size
UHAC should do 25 mph, Gen. Kevin Killea,
commander of the Corps' Warfighting Lab, told
Stars and Stripes.
The UHAC prototype used last week is the third in
the program, built upon a concept originally
proposed by the Hawaii-based shipbuilding and
research firm Navatek, Ltd.
"There has been a one-fifth scale model, then a
one-quarter scale model and this is a half-scale
model, so we have been progressing," Frank
Leban, program officer at the Office of Naval
Research, said in a statement. "Every vehicle has
incorporated more features and technology to
help get us to the full scale."
There's no word yet on when the full-scale model
may actually come, but officials were happy with
last week's demonstration.
"This is a great way to show what it can do,"
said George. "Today went quite well."
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