The European Bison class hovercraft is an air cushion landing ship designed for inland sea/short-distance beach landing. In the Soviet era, in order to cope with the short-distance troop projection in the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, the Soviet military enterprise developed this super large air cushion landing ship, which is still the world's largest air cushion landing ship.
How big is the European Bison class? Looking at the picture above, the tank is a toy in front of it. The European Bison-class hovercraft has a length of 57 meters and a port width of 25.6 meters, what is the concept of this body type? The cruiser Peter the Great, more than 250 meters long and 28.5 meters wide, means that the European Bison class and peter the Great are put together in a similar width, but only four times shorter.
Although this appearance is quite sci-fi, only 15 landing ships have been built in the world, and only 10 are currently in service. The main reason for the small number of construction is that there is still a discrepancy between the European bison-class combat equipment and modern combat thinking.
First, this is a ship that can only complete the beach landing by its own range and escort capabilities, because it is too large to be carried by amphibious landing ships. Therefore, its combat environment is very limited and must be within its range. Its normal range is about 500 kilometers, which means that the combat radius is difficult to exceed 300 kilometers. If a fully loaded weapon is fought, its range will certainly be restricted.
The European Bison class and the American LCAC landing craft are very different, like the American landing craft, which is the equipment that is transported to the destination in the amphibious landing ship cabin and performs a personnel conversion. It doesn't require much endurance, as well as self-protective firepower. Unlike the Bison class, this ship not only has a good endurance, but also its firepower strike capability cannot be underestimated.
Bison and hovercraft are equipped with a communication system electronic warfare system, a foil launcher, and a close-in missile system. There is also a 140mm multi-tube rocket launch system that can provide fire support for the beach landing. It can be seen that this combination is basically equivalent to a light surface combat ship. It can be said that if you fight in a closed inland sea, such ships are indeed of great use. However, with the current development of surface ships and the diversification of shore-based missile types, the limitations of the Bison-class air cushion landing craft have been magnified, which may be one of the reasons why Russia has not built the Bison class after restarting the construction.
In terms of real threats, the threats facing Russia are different from those of the Soviet era. In the Soviet era, the Soviet Navy was huge, and the Bison class was only the icing on the cake, in order to seek control of the closed sea, the Soviet era not only developed the Bison class, but also the surface ships such as the "Caspian Sea Monster".
However, over time, these "non-mainstream" weapons have all been phased out. The reason is simple, frigates and destroyers are fully equipped with their capabilities. Whether it is strike, tracking, patrolling, air defense, anti-ship, modern surface ships can do it.
Therefore, from the perspective of the direction of weapons development, although the European Bison class is a ship with a very high appearance and good comprehensive combat capability, the status of this ship is very embarrassing compared to mainstream surface ships. Therefore, it is not difficult to see why such large surface hovercraft have not been built and copied in large quantities.
Some of the weapons of the Soviet era have not become mainstream weapons, and the reason is not that there is a problem with the technical direction. But it is caused by the marine environment of the Soviet Union, whether it is the Soviet Union or Russia, the sea entrance itself is small, and there are many closed seas around it, especially around the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Baltic Sea, so it has spawned some weapons that are more special for the outside world, which are suitable for Soviet Russia but not suitable for all countries.