China tests ground effect vehicles in South China Sea.

Taiwan TV media reported lately that China has tested ground effect vehicles in South China Sea.

According to People Daily, in the field of military operations, Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV) can function as a missile attack platform or a large landing transport ship; it can also implement material transportation, maritime rescue, and a variety of combat missions, said navy military expert Li Jie in an interview with People's Daily Online.

GEVs are a means of transportation combining the characteristics of both a ship and an aircraft and traveling close to the sea surface or water surface at high speed. In today's increasingly complex marine military operations, GEVs have been widely used.

GEVs can be put to military as well as civilian uses and are widely applied in today's increasingly complex marine military operations.

Li Jie said, the GEV is firstly an excellent missile attack platform because of its good concealment quality and high speed. It can fly skimming the sea at ultra low altitude, therefore hard to be detected by enemy radar or other detection devices. Even if detected by the satellite, the interference effects due to the sand wave on the sea surface will greatly enhance its concealment quality and significantly lower the exposure rate. Besides, the maximum speed of a missile-launching GEV can reach up to 500 kilometers per hour. In this case, even if the GEV is detected by the enemy, it can still fire missiles and the attack will embarrass the enemy's defense.

Second, certain types of GEVs can play an equivalent function to that of a large landing transport ship. For instance, Russia's Caspian Sea Monster is capable of carrying 800 heavily armed amphibious marines along with tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment. In island landing operations, GEVs can quickly sailed sail from departing location to the inshore forefront of the target island, rapidly putting combat soldiers to the disembarking region.

Third, GEVs have huge load capacity and can be used to transport large quantities of military supplies. They can also be used for maritime rescue or carry out a variety of combat missions.