Although Primarily Designed For War,

this new Ultra Heavy-Lift Amphibious Connector (UHAC),

could be really helpful in peace time, today, the Navy uses the more versatile Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) to move troops and supplies from ship to shore, but these hovercraft can’t carry much cargo, crawl over obstacles and are prohibitively expensive to run, the vehicle's four Rolls-Royce engines consume 1,200 gallons of fuel per hour, enter the planned UHAC, which can carry three U.S. Abrams main battle tanks at a time, compared to just one on an LCAC, it’s light, with air-filled foam treads that give the fully loaded vehicle a ground pressure of just a few pounds per square inch—lighter than an adult human’s footstep. “In places where a person would sink into the mud, UHAC would walk right over,” says Frank Leban, deputy UHAC program manager at ONR,

at the moment a half sized prototype is up and running, but even that could make a huge difference in the bringing ashore of essential supplies in a natural disaster where there are no deep water ports for normal ships to unload, the full size vehicle should be able to power up steep slopes, climb over 12-foot seawalls, and traverse just about any terrain: mud, sand, and even ice, the ONR most recently tested this half-size prototype in July, but it has yet to announce a release date for the full-size vehicle, once it arrives, the amphibious craft could support military or disaster relief operations on almost any coastline in the world, whilst one does not wish a disaster on anyone, how much better could the response be with a fleet of UHAC's to help cope with the distribution of emergency supplies?