Flying boats: The new terror of the sea?

I saw a video a while back of the Iranian navy indoctrinating a flying boat. I believe its use is as a swarm attack on a fleet or aircraft carrier or even a port. They fly at 100 knots and since they go 10 to 20 feet above water they cannot be caught by radar. Look kinda cheap to build too so 20,000 might not be that hard to come up with.  I guess they could also be modded to become submersible minisubs in order to be able to[optionally] sneak up on sea craft or lie in wait among reefs waiting for prey to come by.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D4GijAjw_o

How would a destroyer or even an aircraft carrier deal with these if, say 1000 of these showed up on the horizon suddenly and at 100 knots would be closing in within 2 minutes? Each one could have a special forces guy on board firing a couple of missiles upon approach, ditch the boat and dive, and maybe trying to climb aboard with a few hundred others[under heavy fire obviously]. I dunno what the defence against this kinda swarm attack would be, maybe flamethrowers or shrapnel bombs or FAOs or gas? 

hey you can buy such things from the USA (www.hovercraft.com)

this comes in a kit form, rather basic from your looking at maybe (US$) 5-6 grand.


A still from the iranian footage


here a picture of another from an australian sight


the danger from Iran is with the weapons your don't see, and that growing missiles technology.

Yea but what would the US use it for? It already has effective means against any potential targets of that craft's design (i.e. ships).

I was also looking at the flying boat in terms of, to put it crudely, suicide missions. We know that countries like the US who fight most of their wars on the other side of the planet do not have very many people willing to die in their forces. I would argue that most of the people signed up today signed up because they were attracted by the extremely low casualty rate of the US armed forces. Particularly the Navy and Air force. Army has a higher casualty rate I believe.

If the US attacked Iran then for the most part Iran would defend itself with the same types of weapons as the US has--and lose miserably.  For half a billion dollars or maybe a billion. Iran could have 100,000 of these flying boats positioned all over its coastline and if there was an all out attack the Iranian airforce MIGHT be able to hold its ground for a couple of hours before being wiped out. During those two hours the IAF could provide cover for 50,000 of these boats to reach pretty much all the US bases along the persian gulf. Is that not worth a lot in a military scenario? 100,000 crazed fanatics manning flying boats going on kamikaze style missions with a couple of decent missiles and rockets to launch?

Anyway when Iran was counter attacked by Iraq and Iranians were fighting tooth and nail for their very survival there were hundreds of thousands of Iranians willing to die. Now I am not sure what kinda brainwashing the Revolutionary guards go through but is it possible that they have no fear of death and suicide missions kamikaze style? So would this $5,000 weapon not be ideal for an army of 100,000 amphibious kamikaze type of strike force with some pretty decent training too?

There are numerous sites about the these crafts, its nothing new.

Edited by Hellios - 03-Mar-2007 at 06:08

maqsad,

How effective will be the wing operation given the proximity of engine exhaust flow to the wing. + wouldn't it be easier to just use boats.

The mind boggles!!  has no one heard of AWAC's. These canvas suicide flying boats wouldn't get within a hundred miles of a US task force.  Any success against other targets would be small and localised.  Mere pinpricks paid for by huge casualties  

Edited by aghart - 11-Mar-2007 at 05:18