What does the Soviet War Machine and Metal Slug have in common?

I just saw this article and immediately recognized an uncanny resemblance.

The Soviets Had Big Plans For This Enormous Nuclear-Equipped Ekranoplane



At the pinnacle of the Cold War, when the Soviets were realizing they had few options left in defeating the West, the Lun-class Ekranoplane likely held high hopes for many Kremlin officials.





http://www.businessinsider.com/the-soviet-unions-secret-flying-ekranoplan-2014-2#at-the-pinnacle-of-the-cold-war-when-the-soviets-were-realizing-they-had-few-options-left-in-defeating-the-west-the-lun-class-ekranoplane-likely-held-high-hopes-for-many-kremlin-officials-1










And of course everyone remembers this Boss from X.



I think it's a direct influence.

Some people in the former Soviet Union probably had a severe small penis complex.

Seems legit!

It needs a banner in the back that reads "I have explosive diarrhea" in Arabic.

Now that's a cool ship. Nice find.

I never got ekranoplanes. They don't fly, they don't sail, they just hover over water. How could it be useful?

It is a cool looking motherfucker though. CCCP 4 lyf.

The point of this ekranoplane is that it is faster than any ship and can lift more than any plane. Ekranoplanes in general can also be constructed to need very little fuel while having a huge range.

The Lun class (of which we see the only ever finished one here) was actually planed as a means to land huge amounts of troops very fast on the shores of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. They were also thought to be harder to detect by radar than either planes or ships.

Markell1991 said:

I never got ekranoplanes. They don't fly, they don't sail, they just hover over water. How could it be useful?

It is a cool looking motherfucker though. CCCP 4 lyf.

Click to expand...

It moves a lot of troops and supplies at over 300MPH below radar, what's not to like.

The Russians had some unusual designs for planes and helicopters during the cold war. Maybe it was like with the Germans at the end of the second war, they made some far out designs towards the end of the war.
The Russians (and the Americans) also tried to develop a nuclear-powered plane (the Tupolev Tu-95LAL). They actually flew it in test flights. They were made obsolete by ICBMs, and there was the potential disaster if it crashed. And there was the problem of radiation affecting the crew. The range would have been better than any other type of propulsion, just like with nuclear subs.

Oh hell yes, this thing just screams shmup boss. Nice find!