Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China has released new footage showed modern light-weight hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, during its patrol missions at a boundary lake between China and Russia.

A small air cushion patrol craft was attached to a patrol boat group of a frontier defense brigade under the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s ground force and performs its first patrol mission recently in waters of Xingkai Lake, a China-Russia border lake in north China’s Heilongjiang Province, according to a news release.

Lake Xingkai or also called Khanka (Russian name) is a freshwater lake on the border between Primorsky Krai, Russia and Heilongjiang province, Northeast China. Sitting on the border between China and Russia, the lake and its surrounding area attract many tourists to take part in ice and snow sports in winter. But beyond that, the lake also is a zone of tension in Moscow and Beijing for several decades.

A modern Chinese air-cushion vehicle is designed to guard maritime and state borders all year round. The hovercraft can be configured to carry troops or cargo.

A craft can negotiate shallow waters, marshes, shallow snaggy and swift-flowing rivers full of rapids, sandy coast areas, ice, sludge, floating ice during ice freeze-up or motion, snow-covered ice and ground.

According to local sources, the domestic hovercraft, equipped with advanced navigation radar, satellite positioning and video monitoring devices, is specially designed for border defense troops to patrol boundary rivers and lakes.