The CSC-14 Dolphin Multipurpose Aquatic Vehicle, more commonly known as the Cloud Dolphin, is an aquatic hydrofoiling ground-effect vehicle with space-drop capable variants used in oceanographic survey, rapid deployment search-and-rescue, ferry transport, marine biology, cargo transport, military fast-attack operations, and exoplanetary colonization. Designed and produced by Caspian Seaworks Consolidated (CSC), the Cloud Dolphin first flew in 2098, and now sees service with a number of civilian and military organizations, most notably the Peacekeeper Sea Navy and the Final Frontier Project. The Cloud Dolphin's space-drop success has spawned a number of space-drop vehicles from CSC utilizing a similar atmospheric entry frame and launcher, including the CSC-15 Black Dolphin (an autonomous submarine research vehicle) and the CSC-16 White Dolphin (an autonomous search-and-rescue/research aircraft).
Development
Design
The Cloud Dolphin is a hydrofoiling ground-effect vehicle, or ekranoplan, seating 4 to 12 in crewed variants. In cruise, it operates as a quasi-aircraft flying extremely close to a water surface in order for its wings to lie within the ground effect (where water interference prevents the formation of drag-increasing wing vertices and creates a cushion of compressed lifting air), extending roughly 10 meters above the surface. Two 4,100 kW side-mounted electric propellers, each capable of sustaining the vehicle on their own in an emergency, power the vehicle.
While flying in ground effect, the vehicle is extremely fast and stable compared to any seaplane or surface ship of similar weight capacity, with a maximum over-water speed of roughly 740 km/h, while retaining the energy efficiency to perform several repeat ocean crossings without recharge — the Cloud Dolphin may even ascend within a service ceiling of 1,500 meters to clear obstacles, though conventional air operation costs much of the vehicle's energy efficiency. During take-off and landing, the CSC-14 utilizes two U-shaped surface-piercing hydrofoils to easily ascend and descend into and out of the water — these hydrofoils are retracted after take-off, and can be used to steer the vehicle during partially submerged taxiing/surface travel. The Cloud Dolphin's low draft (submerged height in water) also allows the vehicle to navigate intricate shallow waters with ease.
The Cloud Dolphin's CSC-14A (autonomous), CSC-14R (remote), and CSC-14C (space-drop crewed) variants are capable of being directly deployed from low orbit to a planetary surface, through a process known as space-drop. While civilian cargo and tourist Cloud Dolphin operators tend to only deploy these variants from conventional low-altitude helicopter or dropship flight, military/search-and-rescue operators routinely space-drop (or high-altitude drop) Cloud Dolphins inside inexpensive resin aeroshells, guided to drop locations by disposable nitrous oxide attitude control units before rapidly decelerating above a target body of water. Once exposed to water, the aeroshells and guidance units are jettisoned, and a fully pre-powered Cloud Dolphin can begin flight within a minute of drop; from orbital deployment to ground effect flight, this process can take as little as fifteen minutes.
Operational history
Operators
Kazakh Naval Forces
The CSC-14's first operator, the Kazakh Navy largely uses the vehicles in a sea patrol, fast attack, and fast troop transport role. A militarized Cloud Dolphin variant, simply titled the CSC-14QA, is produced by the Oral Zenit Plant JSC in Oral (Uralsk) for the Kazakh government and is capable of mounting up to 10 small fast-attack missile cells in place of a cargo/passenger section.
Chinese Navy
Chinese Coast Guard
The Chinese Coast Guard, in contrast to the Navy, utilizes the Cloud Dolphin in a fully civilian role as oceanography research vessels, transports, and as fast search-and-rescue ships, which has led to a large presence within Chinese internet circles and popular media — on weibo/microblogging platforms, CSC-14s are affectionately referred to as "飞龟", or "flying turtles", for their strange, stubby appearances.
Peacekeeper Sea Navy
Tentatively adopted within the PCSN's Chinese-dominated Indo-Southern Fleet in 2101, Cloud Dolphins first saw use as littoral cargo transports and naval hydrography craft. The vehicles first gained media attention in PCSN search-and-rescue operations after the June 2101 crash of Qantas Flight 811 into the southern Indian Ocean, where their autonomous space-drop capability — arriving at the crash site carrying survey equipment and medical supplies within just 30 minutes of loss of contact with the aircraft — allowed 384 passengers and crew to be recovered from the freezing Indian Ocean while rescue vessels were still steaming out of port, minimizing fatalities to just 15. Following the CSC-14's highly publicized deployment in the recovery of Flight 811, orders for the vehicle expanded 500% in just a month, rescuing Caspian Seaworks Consolidated from insolvency.
European Confederated Naval Forces
Peacekeeper Air Force
Turkish Naval Forces
TNF Cloud Dolphins are a common sight trawling the coasts of the Black and Aegean Seas as patrol boats, coast guard vessels, and as fast attack craft — their abundance in the TNF has led to a push within the Hellenic Navy to acquire similarly militarized fast attack Cloud Dolphins, though no acquisition or licensing deals have as of yet been concluded with CSC.
New Zealand Coastguard
Arabian Republican Navy
Indian Navy
Indian Air Force
Final Frontier Project
Cloud Dolphins see routine Final Frontier Project use as light research, survey, and transportation vehicles on watery exoplanets, including Avalon, Ballad, Lacaille, and Concordia, as well as on the twin moons of Matariki and Tautoru, where long-range ships and heavy aircraft are often too inefficient to be viable outside of developed areas. In this role, CSC-14s have become famous within the Project for their versatility and reliability, transporting surveyors, oceanographers, biologists, and geologists across oceans just as quickly as they fly off-shift competitive tournament teams through vast archipelago racing circuits. Cloud Dolphins were the first FFP surface probes deployed to heavily ocean-covered Matariki and Tautoru, and their short-winged, hydrofoiled forms can be constantly photographed traversing the moons' extensive oceans.
Naval Development Group
Chilean Navy