Experts dismiss PLA Navy's landing craft from Ukraine as giant toys

China's purchase of four of the world's largest military hovercraft, the Zubr-class Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), from Ukraine for US$3.15 million might have shocked neighbouring countries, but military experts have dismissed them as "giant toys".

Defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng confirmed at a press briefing late last month that Beijing had imported an LCAC for the People's Liberation Army Navy.

Geng did not say which fleet would be the first to put the giant Zubr into service, but Xinhua reported that the first LCAC had reached Guangzhou on May 24, raising speculation that it might join the South Sea Fleet, which is responsible for operations in the South China Sea, amid simmering territorial tensions between China and Vietnam and China and the Philippines.

But former Taiwanese defence minister Wu Shih-wen, who patrolled the South China Sea when he was a naval officer between the 1960s and 1980s, said LCACs were not suitable for use in the South China Sea.

"All the islands involved in the territorial disputes between Beijing, Taipei and other Southeast Asian countries are tiny islets, with some even smaller than a ship," he said.

The Tokyo-based Diplomat Magazine said the Zubr is nearly four storeys high with a displacement of 555 tonnes, a range of 300 nautical miles and a top speed of 63 knots. It can remain at sea for five days and has a payload capacity of about 150 tonnes, more than twice that of the LCACs in service in the American and Japanese navies.