Engineered for the Extremes of Rasputitsa.
ARWIMS began as a response to the "Season of Bad Roads", the legendary mud-clogged terrains that ground conventional transport to a halt.
We needed a vehicle that could move on snow, in mud, and even on water without changing propulsion. The answer: retractable-paddle tracks. Paddles stay retracted on hard ground, deploy partially on soft terrain, and fully in water. One drive, no transition.
We also discovered that our tracks could simultaneously decrease consumption and increase speed.
What we've demonstrated
True all-terrain capability
The same track provides traction on land and thrust in water. Beach on sand, cross a marsh or pond, and drive away with no mechanical change.
High static thrust at low speed, with safety
In shallow, debris-filled, or vegetated water where propellers ventilate, cavitate, or break, direct paddle contact moves more water with less slip. A propeller hitting a submerged obstacle breaks. That is why rescue crews often shut down engines in flooded zones. Integrated waterjets avoid breakage but clog quickly with debris. This is not a universal advantage. It is specific to high-load, low-speed conditions.
What we're exploring now
Three operating regimes, all under active measurement:
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Displacement Mode (heavy load)
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Hybrid Mode (semi-planing):
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Here is our central hypothesis.
- On a conventional propeller, slip is about 5%. Water slides very slowly relative to the boat, so friction, which scales with the square of speed, stays very low.
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Track-Only Planing Mode (light craft)
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Our simulator is available on the site. Choose a preset or directly the basic characteristics, and you will get a complete performance summary, minimum and maximum speeds, power and consumption. This information is provided for the 3 possible regimes and for equivalent propeller vessel.
We will publish speed, power, and consumption curves for each demonstrator as we go.
Where ARWIMS makes sense today
| - | Rivers and streams considered non-navigable, because the vehicle drives over shallows |
| - | High-efficiency, high-speed recreational and transport boating (even without a marina berth) |
| - | Disaster response and flood rescue |
| - | Military logistics and shore landing, Unmanned Amphibious Combat Vehicle (UACV) |
In short: specialized amphibious vehicles. Not yet a universal solution.
Design philosophy
True all-terrain capability
Unlike conventional solutions that require separate systems for land and water, ARWIMS integrates both functions into the same propulsion architecture.
The result is a seamless amphibious capability without compromise in operational versatility.
The secret behind ARWIMS is straightforward:
A conventional hull rubs against the water and slows the vessel down, while an ARWIMS track rubs against the water… and accelerates it.
By replacing a fixed surface (the hull) with a moving surface (the track), the direction of friction is reversed: instead of dissipating energy, it generates thrust.
The result is minimal resistance, additional propulsion, zero impact losses, no ventilation and no cavitation, delivering an overall efficiency that conventional marine propulsion simply cannot reach.
This fundamental inversion of the role of friction is what makes ARWIMS not just viable, but inevitably high-performance.