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We may have had a contentious relationship with Russia over the past century — although I won’t go into politics here — but those guys can build big metal vehicles.
The hovercraft that can lift the most weight is also one of theirs. It’s the one pictured, a Zubr-class LCAC, also called “Pomornik”. It’s a military hovercraft, it has a standard full load displacement of 555 tons, and it can carry 130 tons of cargo.
If they want to carry military supplies instead of cargo, they can transport 145 fully equipped troops with 10 armored vehicles on one of these hovercraft, or 500 troops, or 3 T-80 main battle tanks, or 8 amphibious tanks.
The cargo area is 400 square meters (4,300 square feet). It has a fuel capacity of 56 tons.
Technologically, the strength and buoyancy of these craft are provided by a rectagular pontoon, which is the main load-carrying part of the hull, and superstructure sits on top of that pontoon, split into 3 compartments.
Russia has 2 of these in service. Ukraine also has one (had? Not sure if it was at the naval base in Crimea). The Greek navy (called the Hellenic Navy) also has 4, although 2 are in a state of “long term inactivity”.
China has commissioned 4 as well, from Ukraine. They were going to build 2 updated versions at Crimea (which used to be soverign Ukrainian territory until 2 years ago). Not sure what the status of this deal is currently.
These things are heavy already, because they’re built for military situations. For example, they have airtight sealed compartmets to protect crew from weapons of mass destruction, magnetic mine-protecting magnetic field generating systems, and an allow armor strengthened command post.
