NationStates Jolt Archive

Feles Industries is considering developing a military hovercraft for export. As military hovercraft arent commonly unexploited, we would like the views of our potential customers. Please fill in this questionaire, and you will be given a 5% discount on any hovercraft we sell to you:

Would you be interested in utilising a military hovercraft?

How much would you expect to pay for each craft: under 1million / 1-3million / 4-6million / 7million - 10million / 10+million

What role(s) do you believe that the hovercraft is suited to on the battlefield: Use as an MBT / Troop Transport / Scout / Field, AA gun mount / other (please state)

What other features would you like to see on a military hovercraft?

Would you be interested in buying civilian hovercraft?

Just my thoughts:

Would you be interested in utilising a military hovercraft?
Yes - they're an excellent idea as their ability to travel as easily over land as well as water is a very important factor - this makes them more efficient than land-based vehicles or ships for a variety of uses.

How much would you expect to pay for each craft: under 1million / 1-3million / 4-6million / 7million - 10million / 10+million
Under 1million would be very low for what would (probably) be a reasonably large, technologically-advanced vehicle - as would anything less than 4 million - between 4 and 7 million would be advisable, unless this thing is going to have serious power behind it.

What role(s) do you believe that the hovercraft is suited to on the battlefield: Use as an MBT / Troop Transport / Scout / Field, AA gun mount / other (please state)
As a troop/supply transport they would come in very useful, simply for the whole land/sea capability I mentioned earlier

Unfortunately it's use as a battle-tank or a scout system - or any role where it's likely to encounter enemy fire - is limited by the fact there are obvious parts of the craft that are susceptible to even relatively small-arms fire - this is something that almost cripples it's usage in front-line combat roles.

What other features would you like to see on a military hovercraft?
Some armour on the obviously more sensitive parts of the craft would come in very useful, and boost it's usefulness in active-combat situations - though I don't know if this is possible or not - sorry.

Would you be interested in buying civilian hovercraft?
Not really, no - We have our own internal industries that produce civilian vehicles such as this - others might not though :P

Jordaxia would be interested in a military hovercraft, particularly for AA defense. We would pay 4-6 million. Stability, speed, and armour would be necessary for the hovervcraft of this type.

Just as an aside, the British military uses hovercrafts (to a limited extent) as a troop transport/scout. It was used in Iraq, more so than it had been before. It was a fairly efficient system.

(added to previous.) A very large hovercraft supply ship would be useful, as it would save having to take supplies from a large ship, transporting them to shore on smaller ships, then taking them inland on trucks. If a hovercraft could compress that into one job, it would be very useful for establishing, and rapidly extending beacheads, where there is no port access.