shagohod

A 60s era fictional experimental prototype mecha tank from the videogame Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

The Sokolov-Granin design bureau Shagohod (Russian Шагоход, "step-walker", occasionally referred to in English as "The Treading Behemoth") featured in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, is not a true Metal Gear (being a parallel design instead), but has a similar design and role. Rather than a bipedal mecha, it is an unconventional tank, armed with an intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missile it can propel to intercontinental ranges. Like the various Metal Gear variants, it can be crewed by a single pilot, although it has a station for a copilot.

The Shagohod has an articulated body, split into two parts. The front part uses screw propulsion with a pair of Archimedes' screws on hydraulic legs that pulls the bulky rear portion suspended on a hovercraft-style air cushion. While this is an unusual mechanism for propulsion, far more unusual are the Shagohod's rocket boosters. With a sufficiently large flat piece of land (such as a highway or landing strip), the Shagohod can fire its rocket boosters to build up speed (up to more than 480 km/h or 300 mph) before firing its primary weapon, a nuclear-armed intermediate-range ballistic missile. In doing so, it serves as an additional stage for the rocket, allowing it to strike at targets nearly anywhere in the world (a range of over 6,000 miles [9,600 km]). The Shagohod also has parachutes in the back to help in slowing it down after a rocket-boosted missile launch.

Besides its single SS-20 "Saber" IRBM (which has to be reloaded after firing), the Shagohod has defensive weaponry, including three 12.7mm DShKM machine guns to defend against aircraft and infantry, six 9K112 Kobra surface-to-air missiles to protect against aircraft, and a 100-barrel volley gun to defend against armor.