Safehaven Marine / YouTube
The XSV 17 ‘Thunder Child’ is a boat built for military and law enforcement that’s designed to perform in the harshest of weather. It can even flip itself upright if it’s ever capsized. While watching this thing in action it almost feels like an R.C. toy because it’s so impervious to waves and flipping over.
The Thunder Child is manufactured by Safe Haven Marine and it was actually debuted last year but news of this badass boat is making the rounds again. The boat’s watertight cabin and low center of gravity are the two factors which enable it to flip upright when capsized:
Thunder Child has a top speed of 54 knots (around 62mph) so it’s definitely built for speed in addition to being designed to handle the absolute harshest of weather. It has a range of 750 nautical miles which means it can travel crazy distances without having to refuel, another factor that makes it perfect for law enforcement and military use.
Here it is in performance trials:
There’s a jacked up version of this boat, the Barracuda XSV 17, which comes with a remote-controlled gyroscopically stabilized 12.7mm machine gun on top of the boat so the crew can fire it from inside the sealed cabin. The Barracuda XSV 17 has a top speed of 60 knots (which is around 70mph) but this version of the boat doesn’t flip itself upright if it’s ever capsized.