History Main / MilitaryMashupMachine

* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''Beyond Thirty'' (alternate title ''The Lost Continent''): the protagonist is the captain of a Pan-American Navy "aero-sub" -- a submarine capable of AntiGravity flight. Sadly, he doesn't have his vessel throughout most of the story, having been thrown overboard by a mutineer in the first chapter.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'': The MARV. It's ''the'' biggest tank. How big is it? It can simply roll over Mammoth Tanks, which themselves are big enough to roll over regular tanks. It's also a [[WorkerUnit Harvester]], or more accurately, an entire rolling Refinery that auto-collects any Tiberium it rolls over, and with it's extremely large hitbox, could easily eat a third of a patch simply by driving in a straight line. [[BanditMook generally it's your enemy's tiberium that gets collected this way]].

** In ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', the Federation is the only faction with a dedicated science ship class at every level (Klingons have ships that can be variably modified to fit such a role and the Romulans can use their allied faction science ships until proper level).
** Some fans speculate that the Federation's dedication to making these ships defensive science ships rather than offensive war ships is why they make great warships. A science ship would be over sensored and calibrated to find any odd particle at trace levels at range. A federation vessel might not be a great war ship, but considering that the two biggest enemies both rely on cloak technology which require very precise conditions to remain hidden, a single small flaw could easily be picked up by a Starfleet Vessel... and ships under cloak cannot run shields without decloaking. The first ship to really give the Federation's Galaxy class trouble were the Dominion Attack Ships, which were dedicated war ships that didn't bother with cloaking.

* The ''Franchise/MetalHeroes'' series loved having giant spaceship/aircraft carrier fusions that would carry the protagonist's equipment (including flying motorcycles, and flying tanks that could often split into a jet fighter and a drilling machine), and transform into other modes, typically a HumongousMecha and/or a big-ass laser gun used for anti-aircraft purposes.

* [=GoGoVoyager=] from ''Series/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?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' has had a number of these in toy form, although they rarely appeared in the cartoons. One of them, the General ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_(G.I._Joe) The Other Wiki link]]) did recieve the focus of an entire episode. Driven by the Russian guy no less. Go peristrokia.
* The Nazi wheel tank from the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "The Savage Time". These were taken from the old ''ComicBook/{{Blackhawk}}'' comics during that time.

* "Katastrophe", The first SeasonFinale of ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'', had the Kats use one of these against the alliance of Dark Kat, Dr. Viper, and the Metallikats.

* Many amphibious tanks and armoured personnel carriers do exist in the RealLife. Unfortunately, they tend to be extremely unstable and unseaworthy, and tend to sink easily - with often fatal results.

* ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'' has the Special Hydro-Aero Recon Craft, aka [[FunWithAcronyms SHARC]]. ''Why'' you'd need your plane to drive on the surface of water is a good question, but it sure [[RuleOfCool looks awesome doing it]].

** Remember that Maus we showed you on the Land Battleship section? It also counts as one of these. With air piped in through a snorken, another Maus powering it from the beach, they were literally designed to go across rivers because bridges would just collapse with them on top. Once it goes across, It then helps the other Maus through the river.

** The C&C eries usually has a

* ''GIJoe'' has had a number of these in toy form, although they rarely appeared in the cartoons. One of them, the General ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_(G.I._Joe) The Other Wiki link]]) did recieve the focus of an entire episode. Driven by the Russian guy no less. Go peristrokia.

* On ''GIJoe'', Cobra had a couple, the most notable being the [[http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/90/hammerhead/hammerhead_title1.jpg Hammerhead,]] which was not only a submersible tank, but also a submersible carrier for its own mini-fleet of smaller vehicles.

* ''GIJoe'' had the S.H.A.R.C. (Submersible High-speed Attack and Reconnaissance Craft.) The [[MerchandiseDriven toy company]] intended it to be strictly a submarine, but in playtesting, kids started treating the toy as an aircraft. So now it's both.

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

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' does one better, with ''amphibious battleships.'' Not a battleship-sized tank on treads, but a literal [[ShipOutOfWater battleship on treads.]]

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' makes extensive use of amphibious units, as a way to make the inclusion of sea combat less frustrating and complex. The Empire of the Rising Sun has the [[MeaningfulName Tsunami Tank]], the Soviet Stingray is a boat that sprouts legs, while the Allies have the Assault Destroyer.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'''s [[http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Sea-Wing Sea-Wing]] is a submersible ambush jet fighter.

* The United Kingdom messed around a bit with a seaplane jet fighter, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_SR.A/1 Saunders-Roe SR.A/1]], and the Americans similarly worked on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F2Y_Sea_Dart Convair F2Y Sea Dart,]] but both nations moved away from seaplane fighters once carrier-born fighter jets became practical.

** The P1000 Ratte And the P1500 monster previously mentioned under land battleship also would have had the ability to drive underwater up to a certain depth. This actually made sense for two reason, one both vehicles where designed partially using U-boat parts so adding more submarine features wasn't a terrific leap in cost. The other reason was that vehicles so heavy couldn't use conventional bridges, as they would crush them.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_boat Flying Boats,]] being a fairly straightforward combination of a boat and an airplane. For decades, these planes were used as long range transports, bombers, and scouts, as they did not require a prepared runway to land and refuel, as long as there was a sizeable enough body of calm water to land on. Flying Boats which were unable to fly due to damage or being overloaded could often simply sail like a boat, using their engines to push them along and their rudder to steer, as happened with a Catalina flying boat that ended up taking on 56 shipwrecked sailors after the sinking of the USS ''Indianapolis''. Various models are still in use to this day, although their popularity faded with the development of proper long-range land-based planes, and in particular Jet Liners such as the Boeing 767.
** The thing that dug the flying boats in wasn't the development of a jetliner — these still needed the long paved runways — but the improvement in the airport infrastructure. After the WWII, with its ever-increasing speeds and number of planes, most significant airfields in the world acquired paved runways and observation radars, which finally allowed the safe and efficient usage of long-range airliners, and the developments in long-range bombers during the war had directly translated into the airliner development. In fact, the second jet airliner in the world, the Soviet Tu-104, was essentially a civilian version of their first jet strategic bomber, Tu-16, and they later did the same trick with the turboprop Tu-95/114 combo.
** Overall the effect was that with the newly much longer ranges of the modern airliners, and the lots and lots of improved airfields around, the sturdy-but-tricky flying boats were simply not needed anymore. They also were the fuel hogs, due to radically different hull forms needed to function well in the water and in the air. They still exist, but are more of a niche thing, used where their ability to land on the water is crucial, like as the anti-submarine patrol, in the Search and Rescue or as the fire bombers, where it allows them to take on water quickly and efficiently. Still, even then most of them are actually equipped with the conventional landing gear and are technically amphibious — this is largely because they can only land on ''calm'' water.[[note]]Even the sturdiest modern flying boat, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShinMaywa_US-2 the Japanese ShinMaywa US-2,]] can only land in what is basically just a stiff breeze by the naval standards.[[/note]]
* A much less conventional hybrid between a plane and a boat is the ground effect vehicle, also known as ekranoplanes. These often look like strange flying boats with short wings but rely on the ground effect principle, which basically they ride on a cushion of air that forms between the wings and the ground (or the sea). While smaller ground effect vehicles are basically high speed hovercrafts, the larger are often solely relegated to the water and often function as high speed cargo haulers. It still isn't decided if they technically planes or ships, which is important as they could be considered the fastest ships or the heaviest airplanes.
** Behold the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Sea_Monster Caspian Sea Monster,]] the largest of the ekranoplans.

* The Puddle Jumpers from ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' take this to it's illogical conclusion: submersible spacecraft.

* ''Series/JyudenSentaiKyoryuger'' has Plezuon. This is the category it ''best'' fits, but really, where can't it go? Based on a plesiosaur, it was born/made for underwater use, but it was refitted for ''space'' travel. Its first partner even has the SpaceIsAnOcean metaphor as part of his roll call phrase; the seas of the earth and the sea of stars belong to "[[InTheNameOfTheMoon the marine hero, Kyoryu Violet]]!" (Its humanoid transformation enables land combat, but that's sorta cheating.)

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' does one better, with ''amphibious battleships.'' Not a battleship-sized tank on treads, but a literal [[http://portal.commandandconquer.com/portal/site/redalert/template.MAXIMIZE/factions_en/?javax.portlet.tpst=887f789b1e9f05362087dce7b100cda0_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_887f789b1e9f05362087dce7b100cda0_viewID=proxy_view_secondary&javax.portlet.prp_887f789b1e9f05362087dce7b100cda0_wcproxyurl=http%253A%252F%252Flocalhost%253A8080%252FSiteAssets%252Ffactions%252FAssault_Destroyer.html battleship on treads.]]

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' has you being able to design a submersible aircraft carrier, but they're not really that effective. Their best use is as what amounts to [[UsefulNotes/TypesOfNuclearWeapons a kind of nuclear-missile submarine]] (the game treats missiles of all kinds as aircraft, so carrier facilities would allow you to base missiles on the ship), and even that was only useful in multiplayer (TheAllSeeingAI negated the stealthiness advantage of subs, and it's not clear the AI would have understood the second-strike-capability logic of having boomers anyway).

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' has you being able to design a submersible aircraft carrier, but they're not really that effective. Their best use is as what amounts to a [[UsefulNotes/TypesOfNuclearWeapons a kind of nuclear-missile submarine]] (the game treats missiles of all kinds as aircraft, so carrier facilities would allow you to base missiles on the ship), and even that was only useful in multiplayer (TheAllSeeingAI negated the stealthiness advantage of subs, and it's not clear the AI would have understood the second-strike-capability logic of having boomers anyway).

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' has you being able to design a submersible aircraft carrier, but they're not really that effective.

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore: For Answer'' hinges on destroying incredibly HumongousMecha that are land (and sometimes air or water) battleships. The gigantic carrier-type beasts are oversized and difficult to control. They are, however, valuable in that they project an obscene amount of power into an area, and can move to another area relatively easily. They are also extraordinarily frightening to fight: when the ten-meter tall mech that you're piloting isn't as big as the ''smallest gun'' on the carrier, you ''know'' you're in trouble.\\

** The [=SheVa=] unit "Bun-Bun" has added weapons and equipment to arguably make count as a land battleship, but it still isn't quite on the same level as the Tiger [=IIIs=]. Other [=SheVa=] units, however, are more akin to just really big mobile artillery pieces.

** Put in the flying cars cheat into GTA 3 and the Rhino tank will fly, propelled by recoil from shooting backwards. It's arguably easier to fly than the clipped-winged Dodo. Works in Vice City too, where it can fly higher than helicopters and planes.

* Arguably, the original aircraft carrier was a working real-life example of this, attempting to combine an airbase with a ship.

* The Israeli [[TankGoodness Merkava]] is arguably a mild example, armed as well as any other main battle tank in the field AND capable of doubling as an APC. Some are even equipped as [[DeadlyDoctor ambulances]]. In practice, though, the Merkava's rear compartment is normally used to carry extra ammo for the main gun. On the other hand, it made adapting the Merkava chassis into a pure APC (something that would be virtually impossible with most modern main battle tanks) not only plausible but easy, resulting in the Namer (contraction of "Nagmash" (Hebrew for APC) and "Merkava"), the most heavily armored APC in current use.

** The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PT-76 PT-76]] is probably the most successful of modern amphibious tanks.
*** 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 Military Mashup Machine status.
*** so, what you're saying is that [[RussianReversal In Soviet Russia]], water full of Tank?
*** [[http://www.perekop.ru/history/nord-crimea-1941-172sd/attachment/perekop-1941-t37-tanks/ Sometimes]] [[http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/010/001/252522462.jpg it]] [[http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7070048 is.]] Though [[http://www.diorama.ru/forum/files/thumbs/t_pantera_svastika.jpg not always]] the same [[http://mk-armour.narod.ru/2003/b_02/Photo_36.jpg way.]]

** The [[http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-viii-maus-porsche-typ-205-tiger-iip.htm Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus]] AKA "Mouse". At 188 tons, it is the heaviest tank ever constructed. Yeah, they really built this monstrosity. Two prototypes were built; the V1 had a weighted mockup turret with no weaponry, while the V2 had a real turret and armament. Both were captured by Russian troops, but the V2 was gutted by internal explosions in the process. The turret from the V2 prototype survived reasonably intact, and was lifted off the ravaged V2 hull (using six captured 18-ton halftracks) and mated with the V1 hull. This hybrid vehicle was returned to Russia, and survives to this day [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metro-maus1.jpg on display]] at the Kubinka tank museum.
*** [[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 ''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 [[SubvertedTrope not exactly a land battleship]].
** The Soviet [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-35 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.

* Franchise/MetalGear RAY. A giant, walking, swimming battletank, with an armor-piercing water cutter.

* Dr. Claw's CoolCar in ''InspectorGadget'' can turn into a jet or a submarine.

*** 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.