History Main / MilitaryMashupMachine

*** Partly to get around the Second London Naval Treaty and partly because they just did things differently, the Soviet Union built four "aviation cruisers", essentially VTOL aircraft carriers with anti-shipping missiles built in. The VTOL aircraft, the Yak-38 "Forger" was spectacularly poor. The current sole Russian carrier, the ''Admiral Kuznetsov'' is also an example, albeit a full-length one with Su-33 fighters on.
*** Due to a shortage of carriers after the Battle of Midway, the Imperial Japanese navy converted the battleships Ise and Hyuga into carrier-battleships, removing the rear guns and installing flight decks. The design was not successful.

** An Amphibious Assault Ship is probably as close as practical towards several mash-ups into a single ship, taking on the functions of aircraft carrier, troop transport/beach assault ship, command ship, and - when some earlier designs still had decent-sized guns - bombardment ship.

* Successful real life example with the Russian MI-24 Hind helicopter, which was designed to combine the roles of a transport and attack helicopter. However, serving as a transport made it bigger and less maneuverable than a pure attack helicopter. Though in terms of pure straight-line speed it's still the fastest attack helicopter to ever go beyond the prototype stage.

** Imperial tanks in EmpireFromTheAshes use a fully-functional gravitonic drive, and can hit Mach 2 in atmosphere. [[LightningBruiser They are also heavily shielded]], and capable of deploying more conventional tracks for increased stability and decreased power budget.

* ''CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'''s [[http://www.ea.com/redalert/factions-empire.jsp?id=SeaWing Sea-Wing]] is a submersible ambush jet fighter.

* At some point, most silly works will include efforts to make a flying tank. Sometimes this will be to just slap wings on that ever-so-aerodynamic thing, the main battle tank.

* The final stage of ''BattleGaregga'' has a giant land-based aircraft carrier.

* In ''Franchise/StarTrek'', Federation ships appear to mix the functions of warship, science vessel, deep space exploration ship, and diplomatic vessel all into a single hull. The Federation also seems to have an aversion to calling their ships "warships" despite the fact that they have more than sufficient shields and firepower to stand up to the dedicated warship designs used by other spacefaring civilizations.

* The Boulton Paul Defiant: a WWII RAF fighter/interceptor with a machine gun turret behind the cockpit and no forward armament[[note]] the turret guns ''could'' be triggered by the pilot, with the intention of allowing forward fire as in a standard fighter, but the cockpit was in the way, which forced the guns to elevate by 19 degrees when pointed forward. It would have been difficult to design a gunsight that would handle this, so the pilot ended up without one[[/note]]. The weight of the turret and gunner seriously impacted on the aircraft’s performance compared to other fighters, and it was still vulnerable to attack from beneath or dead ahead. Initially, the Defiant brought down quite a few rather surprised Luftwaffe pilots, [[note]]many of whom confused it with the similarly-shaped Hawker Hurricane[[/note]] but once they knew what they were dealing with, they made mincemeat of it. [[note]]The turret fighter concept had worked rather well back in the WWI era, with a number of successful models, particularly the RAF’s Bristol F.2 Fighter, which the Defiant was intended to emulate. However, that was the era of biplanes, open cockpits, top speeds a quarter of those in the WWII era, and rather more forgiving aerodynamics. Which, for instance, allowed the Bristol F.2 to be equipped with both a turret ''and'' a forward machine gun. By the time the practical limitations of the turret fighter in the WWII closed-cockpit arena had become apparent, a number of turreted versions of successful fighters (such as the Mosquito) were in the process of being designed or commissioned. None made it into service.[[/note]]

* The restored monolith from ''{{Dawn of War}}''. When the Necron's headquarters building is brought fully back online, it transforms from an ominous black pyramid of doom into an evil floating pyramid of doom and green lightning that can suddenly materialize right in the middle of your base. While it holds the award for the single slowest unit in the entire game, it can teleport, has a gigantic cannon, and regenerates. As if that wasn't enough, it still maintains the ability to produce units.

* A mainstay of the ''CommandAndConquer'' games ([[InNameOnly excluding]] ''[[CommandAndConquer Generals]]'') is the Mobile Construction Vehicle, a low-as-molasses, helpless unit that can deploy into a Construction Yard capable of building an entire base from scratch in a matter of seconds. In later titles they gained the ability to pack up and move elsewhere to set up new bases.

* ''StrangeJourney'''s unique model of dimensional-hopping warship model definitely counts. It has fabrication labs for weapons and technology development, outer weapons systems, plasma shields, hospital sectors, an AI navigator, and, oh, yes, ''rocket-boosted VTOL capabilities''.

* The General Systems Vehicles of [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]]'s [[TheCulture Culture]] novels qualify as, among other things, mobile factories. These ships are large enough to be home to billions of people and can crank out other massive ships, as described in '''Excession''.

* The General Systems Vehicles of IainMBanks's [[TheCulture Culture]] novels qualify as, among other things, mobile factories. These ships are large enough to be home to billions of people and can crank out other massive ships, as described in '''Excession''.

* ''VideoGame/PlanetSide'' - The Sunderer (and its variants) are basically ''giant'' (they're the size of a house) buses, with massive spikes on front, and tank cannons on top. And they can carry [[PoweredArmor MAX units]]. Oh, and they can use a EMP pulse on anything near them, making them minefield sweepers as well.

* ''CodeGeass'' has airships that are submersible, a HumongousMecha that turns into a fighter jet-thingie, and another that turns into a ''submarine''.

* The Nazi wheel tank from the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "The Savage Time". These were taken from the old ''{{Blackhawk}}'' comics during that time.

* ''GIJoe'' had the S.H.A.R.K. aircraft.
** SHARC was always intended to be strictly a submarine. In playtesting kids started treating the toy as an aircraft.

Enter the MilitaryMashupMachine. In reality, some of these would be [[AwesomeButImpractical far more expensive than practical]], with other existing military technologies being much easier to get the same results from, but [[RuleOfCool if it looks cool]], why not present it as worthwhile?

** The [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Squats]] favored these sort of engines over HumongousMecha, including the Cyclops, a rolling juggernaut that's approximately fifty percent [[NamesToRunAwayFromVeryFast Hellfury Cannon]], and of course the [[CoolTrain Land Train]]. The aforementioned Leviathan was originally a Squat invention as well.

*** Arguably, its biggest success is in being cheap, lightweight, and armored enough to serve as an universal chassis for the whole lot of other Soviet vehicles, from self-propelled artillery to SAM launchers, adding more to its MilitaryMashupMachine status.

* See [[http://www.amazon.com/My-Tank-Fight-Zack-Parsons/dp/0806527587/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205083504&sr=8-1 My Tank is Fight!]] for a look at flying tank ideas, among other MilitaryMashupMachine concepts from RealLife.

** [[http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-viii-maus-porsche-typ-205-tiger-iip.htm Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus]]. "Mouse". At 188 tons, it is the heaviest tank ever constructed. Yeah, they really built this monstrosity.

*** Big, but not exactly a land battleship.

* A mainstay of the ''CommandAndConquer'' games ([[InNameOnly excluding]] ''[[CommandAndConquer Generals]]'') is the Mobile Construction Vehicle, a low as molasses, helpless unit that, when deployed, expands into a Construction Yard capable of building an entire base from scratch. In later titles they gained the ability to pack up and move elsewhere.
** In the ''CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' expansion, ''Firestorm'', both factions gained mobile factory units; particularly dangerous when paired with the Brother of Nod's cloaking generators.

* The Empire Of The Rising Sun in [[CommandAndConquer Red Alert 3]] will have the [[MeaningfulName Tsunami Tank.]] The Stingray from the Soviets is a boat that sprouts legs. And there's the Assault Destroyer from the Allies. The game makes extensive use of amphibious units, as a way to make the inclusion of sea combat less frustrating and complex.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* TruthInTelevision: there was such a school of thought in 1920s to 1930s advocating the use of powerful vehicles to serve as trench-breakers and infantry support. As the expected pace of warfare was restricted by both technological limitations and the speed of infantry, these largely concentrated on larger and more heavily armoured vehicles.
** Both the British and Germans considered building these during WorldWarII. The Germans prototyped at least one, with several more designs in the works before the war's end prevented their construction. By contrast, the British eventually gave up on the concept due to it being more expensive than it would be worth.
** [[http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-viii-maus-porsche-typ-205-tiger-iip.htm Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus]]. "Mouse". At 188 tons, it is the heaviest tank ever constructed. Yeah, they really built this monstrosity.
*** [[RealityEnsues Reality Ensued]]: it was a total failure. Sure, it had a {{BFG}} and was a fortress on wheels, but it broke windows on nearby buildings when it moved, and bogged down on anything except asphalt, cobblestone, or concrete.
** One proposed German design featured ''a pair of battlecruiser cannon''. It's none other than the [[http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=293 Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte]] (Literally "Rat"; the fact that they called it "land cruiser" rather than "tank" is in and of itself telling). Wanna know what it would have looked like? [[http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/mauspic/ratte100.jpg Have fun]]. Note the soldier standing on top for scale.
*** Oh, it gets worse/better than that. Around the same time as the Ratte, they were also working on the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster, which would've been ''even bigger'', with a ''[[http://paradiselost522.250free.com/dora_color.jpg Dora gun]]'' mounted on it. Fortunately for the Axis (and to a ''much'' lesser extent, the Allies), Albert Speer realized how idiotic both projects were (no matter how heavy the armor is, a "land cruiser" would inherently be a large, slow target that Allied air power could just keep dropping bombs on until the thing died) and canceled them.
** French [[http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=282 Char 2C]]. 69 metric tons.
*** Big, but not exactly a land battleship.
** The Soviet [[http://www.chamtec.com/t35gal.htm T-35]] probably qualifies - a veritable Games Workshop Tank with five turrets, but about as much use as you might expect. This one got into series, though soon canceled as obsolete.
*** This was based on the Earlier British [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_A1E1_Independent A1E1]], which was about as successful. Nor was the t-35 the only offshoot, for the Russians also built the T-28 and T-100, the British built the Medium Mk I, and Medium Mk III, and even the Germans got in on the act with the Neubaufahrzeug, though having a greater presence of mind, cancelled the idea soon after.
*** The Soviet [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-28 T-28]], nicknamed ''Postivaunu'' (Stagecoach) by Finns in WinterWar. Formidable three-turreted monster, but an abysmal failure in practise.
** And then there's the [[http://www.tankmuseum.ru/p1.html IS-7]] heavy tank, which there were only three made, but actually had the 130mm S-70 naval cannon as a main weapon, in addition to no less than 8 machine guns as secondaries.

* The Imperial Baneblade in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' is a tank the size of a large house and mounts no fewer than 11 separate weapons ranging from high explosive cannon rounds, laser cannons and bolter (fully automatic armoured-piercing RPG) turrets. It should also be noted that the Baneblade chassis is the ''standard'' chassis which Imperial super-heavy tanks are usually based on. Like, for example, the Shadowsword [[HumongousMecha Titan]]-killer - a Baneblade chassis housing a [[{{BFG}} Volcano Cannon]], usually found on the Titans that it is designed to destroy. Even larger examples of Imperial land battleships include the Ordinatus (tracked WaveMotionGun) Leviathan (mobile command centre, basically a castle on tracks) and Capitol Imperialis (APC ''for tanks''). And let's not get started on the Imperium's HumongousMecha, the Titans, which are often referred to as "walking battleships."
** In older versions of the setting, the Baneblade chassis was said to be the size of a ''city block''.
** Though, to a certain extent, anything built by Orks qualifies.
** Not to mention Chaos has daemonically possessed/traitorous versions of all the above, sporting screaming mouths the size of houses and bladed tentacles the size of trains.

* DystopianWars has Land Battleships large enough to mount [[UpToEleven Saint Paul's Cathedral]] on their backs, while also carrying various weapons that make them more than able to live up to their moniker.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer's'' Global Defense Initiative is ''in love'' with Land Battleships, typically in the form of their Mammoth Tanks, which are so huge and durable they can run over ''other'' tanks. In the ''Kane's Wrath'' expansion, GDI also gains the MARV, which is an even ''bigger'' mobile treaded deathmobile with ''three'' railguns, garrissionable infantry bunkers, and the ability to consume entire Tiberium fields instantly.

** See VideoGame/SupremeCommander's Salem-Class, above.
* The Marmotah from ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' fits this trope to a T.
** So does the Batomys.

* The Land Titanic from {{Futurama}}. Though it sank.

[[AC:TruthInTelevision]]

* The aliens in TheKrakenWakes drive their tanks from the deepest parts of the ocean up to the coast to attack humans.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* See the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' entries above- at least half of those tanks are capable of functioning underwater. The Land Raider in particular has been used for devastating beach assaults.
** In the latest Codex: Space wolves there is mention of the Space Wolves batteling Tau under 5 miles of oceans, after having driven their Land Raiders there, on the bottom of the sea.

[[AC:TruthInTelevision]]

* To quote MarineBoy's theme, "Flying sub ahoy!"

** The [=KingFisher=] in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' novel ''The Indestructible Man'', a CaptainErsatz of everything Gerry Anderson ever did.

* ''[[CommandAndConquer Red Alert 3]]'''s [[http://www.ea.com/redalert/factions-empire.jsp?id=SeaWing Sea-Wing]] is a submersible ambush jet fighter.
* ''[=XCOM=]: Terror from the Deep'', the second XCOM game, had the player fighting Unidentified Submersible Objects (ie, [=UFO=]s that could go underwater) with a small fleet of their own submarine-jets.

* The [[DarkEmpire World Devastators]] from the StarWarsExpandedUniverse not only did this, but ate the planets they were attacking to get the raw materials. If given enough time, a fleet of World Devastators could consume the entirety of a planet and convert it into new war machines. Including ''more World Devastators''.
** Not just factories then, but also refineries. You also ought to include EVS Construction Droids, which are walking rather than flying factories.
*** EVS droids aren't really military, though. Well, there was that one time [[XWingSeries Rogue Squadron]] hijacked one and went on a {{Kaiju}}-style rampage to evacuate a section of an enemy city before it could be {{Kill Sat}}ted, but that definitely wasn't the intended purpose.

* The restored monolith from ''Dawn of War''. The Necron race is badass enough, but really takes the cake when their headquarters building is brought completely back online. It changes from an ominous black pyramid of doom into an evil floating pyramid of doom and green lightning that can suddenly materialize right in the middle of your base. While it holds the award for the single slowest unit in the entire game, it can teleport, has a gigantic cannon, and regenerates. As if that wasn't enough, it still maintains the ability to produce units. Combine it with the Necron Lord who can buy an ability to stealth units around him and your enemy is clueless what just decimatde his base.
** Although, to be fair, without proper support or preparation, a restored monolith can be ripped to shreds by a properly defended base, leaving you down quite a bit of energy.

* The base of operations for King K Rool in DonkeyKong64 houses a BFG and produces it's own mooks in it's bottom.

** The Carrier returns in [=SC2=], the Terrans gain the Raven, and the Zerg the Brood Lord. Could also be broadly applied to Terrans as a whole, since their major production buildings can move, although they can't produce units while doing so.
* The GDI and Brotherhood of Nod both possess mobile factory units in the ''Firestorm'' expansion for ''CommandAndConquer: Tiberian Sun''.
** It goes back further than that. Since the earliest C&C games the heart of the base of either side has been the Construction Yard, which deploys from the Mobile Construction Vehicle, an immense truck-like unit that could move to an optimal position and set up. More recent games have given it the ability to pack up again and move somewhere else.
* Aircraft carriers in many RealTimeStrategy games usually operate like this.

* The ''Rhinoceros''-class ships in ''SuperRobotWars: Original Generation''.

* The ''Killer Whale''-class subs in ''SuperRobotWars Original Generation''.

* The Boulton Paul Defiant: a WWII RAF fighter/interceptor with a machine gun turret behind the cockpit and no forward armament[[hottip:*: the turret guns ''could'' be triggered by the pilot, with the intention of allowing forward fire as in a standard fighter, but the cockpit was in the way, which forced the guns to elevate by 19 degrees when pointed forward. It would have been difficult to design a gunsight that would handle this, so the pilot ended up without one]]. The weight of the turret and gunner seriously impacted on the aircraft’s performance compared to other fighters, and it was still vulnerable to attack from beneath or dead ahead. Initially, the Defiant brought down quite a few rather surprised Luftwaffe pilots, [[hottip:*:many of whom confused it with the similarly-shaped Hawker Hurricane]] but once they knew what they were dealing with, they made mincemeat of it. [[hottip:NB: The turret fighter concept had worked rather well back in the WWI era, with a number of successful models, particularly the RAF’s Bristol F.2 Fighter, which the Defiant was intended to emulate. However, that was the era of biplanes, open cockpits, top speeds a quarter of those in the WWII era, and rather more forgiving aerodynamics. Which, for instance, allowed the Bristol F.2 to be equipped with both a turret ''and'' a forward machine gun. By the time the practical limitations of the turret fighter in the WWII closed-cockpit arena had become apparent, a number of turreted versions of successful fighters (such as the Mosquito) were in the process of being designed or commissioned. None made it into service.]]

* [=GoGoVoyager=] from ''GoGoSentaiBoukenger'' is basically a battleship with wheels (and a terrain-flattening roller), able to go from sea to land and leave a path of devastation. Did we mention [[CombiningMecha it also seperates into five assault vehicles]] [[HumongousMecha AND combines again into a big horkin' robot?]]
* [[KyoryuSentaiZyuranger Ultimate Daizyujin]] / [[MightyMorphinPowerRangers Ultrazord]]. DescriptionPorn warning: Start with an oversized robot brachiosaurus on wheels. Split the tail into two {{BFG}}s, and put one on each front shoulder. Take a skyscraper-sized robot formed from a robot TyrannosaurusRex, a robot mammoth/mastodon, a robot triceratops, a robot smilodon, and a robot pterosaur, and a robot aquatic dragon. Remove the chest armor and tail from the dragon, and retract its missile-launcher hands into the shoulders. Then tilt the feet around, split it at the middle, and put it on the humanoid robot as armor, making sure to tilt the head crest up. Put the brachiosaur's chestplate (which has several firing barrels) on the humanoid robot's chest, and put its front paws on the humanoid robot as gauntlets. Attach the dragon's tail to the and chestplate to the brachiosaurus in the appropriate spots. Then stand the humanoid robot in a bay in the brachiosaurus' back. Voila. The resulting machine can roll along at a good clip, and packs enough firepower to blow up even the devil.

->''Wot's faster than a warbuggy, more killy than a warbike, and flies through da air like a bird? I got no bleedin' idea, but I'm gonna find out.''
-->--'''[[FunetikAksent Kog da Flymek]]''', pioneer of the [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Deffkopta]].

* This was the central plot point of ''TheThreeStooges In Orbit'': a professor builds a vehicle that's a submarine with tank treads and rotor blades. When it's stolen, the military has problems figuring out who should stop it. It lands: 'Call the Army!' It takes off: 'Call the Air Force!' Eventually, it goes over the ocean, to the relief of the commander: 'Call the Navy!'