In the 1970’s when the first American satellite photos were taken of this vessel as it sat inland it was believed that it was a normal Jumbo jet sized aircraft under construction, and when the vessel was later photographed sitting in water the questions started to fly "what is it ? " Ekranoplan is a Russian word it means 'screen craft' or 'skimmer'. It is not a plane nor is it a ship, moreover its a mixture of both. The craft moves along on a dynamic cushion of air that is generated by its forward movement. It has similar characteristics of the common hovercraft in that it flies just above the surface as it moves. It will not however, hover while stationary but sits in the water. These craft are big and fast and were kept secret from the west until the fall of communism in the early 1990's. It can quite easily be envisaged a hundred of such craft zooming across the ocean relatively undetected underneath radar to invade a country. And by the time that country realized what was going on it would have been too late, the front part would have opened up and heavily armed soldiers with tanks, trucks, jeeps, and armored cars could have poured out and invaded.  LOL YEA!...That wil work. Nice try tho. Peace/Out T