THE HOVERCRAFT
EXPERIMENT
Military conflicts around the world have always provided opportunities to test
new, experimental weapons under actual combat conditions. That was true during "Konfrontasi."
Within walking distance of my house in Tawau, the Royal Navy decided to
field-test its SR.N5 air cushion vehicle, popularly known as the Hovercraft, for
the first time in early 1965. In fact, these tests were probably the very first
military applications of air cushion vehicles anywhere in the world. Two early
model Hovercraft were deployed in my town for many months and were being
evaluated for coastal patrol and logistic support of Commonwealth troops on
Sebatik Island and in the estuaries west of Tawau. Built by British Hovercraft,
the SR.N5 was powered by a single Rolls Royce turbine. It provided forward
propulsion (via a large propeller mounted on the back of the craft) and downward
air pressure which caused the machine to rise above the surface on its rubber
skirts.
The SR.N5 appeared completely helpless when not in motion. It was like a duck
sitting on a rubber nest---low, squat and motionless---on the narrow beach below
the Tawau Resident's home. When powered up, though, it was both fast and noisy.
It carried about a dozen soldiers. Speed must have been the most redeeming
feature of the Hovercraft. It could not have been stealth; it was far too noisy.
As one or both of them skimmed across Cowie Bay, I could hear them approaching
miles away. Not only was the Hovercraft noisy. It also had a distinctive sound
unlike any aircraft or ship. Certainly the Indonesians must have identified them
easily.
One day as I watched a football (soccer) game at the town padang, two American
Navy officers approached me. That was a very strange occurrence because we never
saw American military in Tawau. They were there to observe the use of the two
Hovercraft in combat. We had a brief but pleasant conversation. They were just
as surprised to see a Peace Corps Volunteer there as I was to see them.
Beginning in 1967, the U. S. Navy began using a slightly larger version of the
Hovercraft, the SR.N6, in the Mekong Delta. I wondered whether its introduction
into that much larger Southeast Asian war was an outgrowth, in part, of the
military observers' visit to Tawau a couple of years earlier. Later, in the
Persian Gulf War, our Navy used behemoth relatives of the SR.N6 called LCACs
(landing craft/air cushioned) successfully.
For all we know, this naval innovation got its start in a coastal town in
Borneo.
Original Source :
http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/2745.html
Gus Breymann's writes: A Sabah Sojourn
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