Boat With Tracks Makes Inroads.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: NEWS BRIEFS

A U.S. company marketing a French-designed boat that deploys a set of tracks to operate on land has reported its first sale to a foreign navy.

The Extreme High Purpose Interdiction Craft, also called "the Iguana," has been making the rounds at trade shows the past few years and was on display at Modern Day Marine in Washington, D.C, and the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida, recently.

Mario R. Leone, CEO of Iguana USA, which is based in Bay Shore, New York, said the company sold two of the amphibious watercraft through a foreign military sale through Navy Sea Systems Command, although he could not disclose the customer.

"They are in international waters right now," he said.

The 31-foot boat can move at 57 knots then--at the push of a button--deploy a set of two tracks that allows it to come ashore.

"It has the same footprint of a human being. So, if a human being can walk thought it, the Iguana can also walk through it," he said. That includes sand or soil. "With a little water, we can also add 600 pounds of thrust to it to get us out of a tough environment or material," he added.

It specializes in traversing sand bars that other watercraft would have to go around, he added.

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