Generic question about hovertanks.
By what mechanism do they negotiate hillsides and going downhill/uphill on paved roads ?
One of those don't ask don't tell subjects ?
Hovercraft, by their nature, are not great at negotiating steps or troughs and they are absolutely unable to climb any but the most gentle of hills. To start, the air cushion acts perpendicular to the surface, not the local gravity vector, so instead of lifting straight up, you actually get both pushed a bit back _and_ the lift vector is now less than the gravity vector, meaning you have to pump more air into the skirt. And then the engines have top provide some thrust up the hill because the weight of the vehicle wants to roll down the hill. And that's to just sit in one spot on a slope. To climb the slope you need additional power to accelerate up the slope. Enough power to actually overcome the mass up the slope angle. Which is a LOT.
Which is why hover craft are not used as combat vehicles today and, frankly, won't be used as combat vehicles in the future, no matter how cool Hammers Slammers are (and they are). Ground effect vehicles really don't work well when the ground isn't mostly flat.
Now, using engines to directly provide hover lift and not relying on ground effect, that would work. essentially you are flying all the time at whatever altitude you like.
But that's a different universe. Like Star Wars.
