Out of the depths of the Caspian Sea, a giant war plane that was used by the Soviet Union has been discovered. This wreck has been hidden under the waves for thirty years and was the last of its kind to be used before the collapse of the Soviet Union. This metal monster was a war machine that was used to attack or defend from a sea-born attack. The plane is a Lun-class Ekranoplan, a large aircraft that can hover close to a water’s surface, but the sunken plane won’t ever fly again. 

The plane came from the Soviet Union and was one of their last ideas to try to regain power. This machine was one of the last to come out of the Soviet vehicle program, but was left at sea when they were defeated. Miquel Ros, a writer for CNN, states, “This formidable machine was even able to take off and land in stormy conditions, with waves of up to two and a half meters. Its intended mission was to conduct lightning sea-borne attacks with the six anti-ship missiles it carried in launch tubes placed at the top of its hull.” The plane was very fast and the plane had missiles that would be fired to stop incoming ships, and it was fast as well. The plane could move up to 340 miles per hour over the water. The plane also had many jets on the side of it, which helped it reach these fast speeds. 

Now, the rediscovered plane is too heavy to be moved and has no use as it won’t fly again. The plane will serve as an attraction for tourists in or going to the city of Derbent, in Russia. The wreck will have an attraction built around the existing structure and will be moved as little as possible because the craft weighs 380s tons. Miquel Ros explains, “Lun will add to the attractions of a region that, up until the coronavirus pandemic, had seen a number of initiatives to open it up to tourism, including the launch of cruise itineraries in the Caspian Sea. Lun will be the star of Derbent’s planned Patriot Park, a military museum and theme park that will display different sorts of Soviet and Russian military equipment.” 

The wreckage of the plane will not go to use and the idea of main it a tourist attraction is really creative because even though there is no use for it in the military, it is a fascinating war machine. The park will not start construction until later in 2020 and maybe early 2021, but while there is no construction happening at the moment, the Lun will sit by itself on the beach. This metal monster has finally come out of the depths of the sea and has shown what war was like a long time ago. 

References

Ros, Miquel. “The ‘Caspian Sea Monster’ rises from the grave.” CNN Travel, Cable News Network, 22 October 2020, www.cnn.com/travel/article/caspian-sea-monster-ekranoplan/index.html.