Always ready to climb on my "naysayer" platform...
1. I certainly hope those inflatable pontoon sections are well reinforced! Hate to be in the middle of the ocean and find one damaged by hitting a swordfish at 60mph! Ouch!
2. I don't think aluminum is particularly suited to exposure to salt water. Fresh is OK.
3. Not sure how much 'spring' might be in the suspension but the high seas are not always as calm as S.F. Bay. There are advantages of single hulls when the water gets really rough. This thing looks like it would be real exciting in even 10 foot swells!
4. Slow speed turns would be easy but at the top speed, I'd, again, be leery of both the pontoons safety and the rather high center of gravity, even assuming that the engines are somewhere in the pontoons.
5. While a couple of feet of water is needed by
this design, draft is solely determined by the weight of the object and its surface/submerged area. There's nothing magic about the design and the current draft, it's simply the large surface area of the pontoons compared to the relatively light structure. Load up that 'cargo' area with a few dozen troops, gear, food, ammunition, etc. and the draft may increase significantly. Nor would those troops be content to travel across many hours in such cramped quarters! Granted, the purported speeds would decrease the amount of human support items
for the trip, but the resupply/maintenance needs will not really be changed. Best bet would be for that to happen by airdrop. And, if your going to do that, why not make the troop delivery the same way?
I suppose, if the scaled up version could be big enough, a case could be made for deployment of some forces. But the speed, even with 'real' pontoons(!), would still be a negative factor. And a lot more effort would be needed to make the design more stealthy.
This high-speed, 'water-borne' delivery system was researched quite a bit by the Soviets several decades ago. But the design resembled more of a <
'ground effect' aircraft>. However, it offered many benefits of the 'spider'; low draft, maneuverability, very low support needs, etc. But it also offered much greater speeds and much less dependence on 'high-tech' fabrics, suspensions and smooth seas, IMHO.
6. Finally, we all know that 640MB is more than enough RAM!
