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Russia came, saw and conquered? Not in Ukraine. The country is resisting its neighbour’s relentless offensive war, and the Ukrainians are using foreign resources for this. An effective weapon against the Russians consists mainly of air and is more reminiscent of a bouncy castle for children’s birthday parties.

They are huge, look deceptively real and tempt the Russians to fire their valuable missiles: inflatable decoys such as tanks.

Ukrainians rely on the martial art of deceit

Inflatable or wooden dummies are almost indistinguishable from real military vehicles by satellites, aerial reconnaissance and radar. The Washington Post reported in August that Russian forces had fired 10 Kalibr cruise missiles at dummy wooden Himars launch pads within a few weeks. They lost about a million euros each.

The dummies trick the enemy into pointlessly firing expensive missiles. A tactic that is already known from both world wars.

America relied on inflatable tanks in World War II

For example, in World War I, French troops used old wine barrels to emulate large caliber guns. During World War II, the Americans used inflatable vehicles for the first time. With this deceptive maneuver they managed to convince the Wehrmacht that they were dealing with a real troop. But the ghost army was nothing but hot air.

The special unit, the 23rd Special Troops, was responsible for these missions. The 1,100-strong force fought the enemy not only with inflatable tanks, but also with fake planes and fake hospitals. According to “Stern”, even complete buildings made of rubber were part of their equipment. A source of inspiration for Ukraine? In any case, the trade in inflatable military vehicles is booming.

The Czech Republic produces inflatable tanks

The company Inflatech from the Czech Republic builds tanks from artificial silk and air. Given the tense security situation in Europe, the order books are full.

In a hall in the border town of Decin, seamstresses sit behind machines to sew pieces of green fabric together. They make inflatable dummies of heavy military vehicles for the company Inflatech. For a year, since the beginning of the Russian offensive war against Ukraine, there has been more work here than before.

Much is top secret. His company can produce about 35 dummies per month, says general manager Vojtech Fresser of the dpa news agency. The advantages of the deception technique are clear to him. Its products, such as inflatable main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers, cost the equivalent of between $10,000 and $100,000 — still a no-brainer in terms of the enemy’s potential millions of losses.

“If you don’t use binoculars, you can’t tell at a distance of 150 to 200 meters whether it’s real technology or a dummy,” says Fresser. However, it is much more important to faithfully recreate the heat and radar signature to the original. He wouldn’t say exactly how that happens.

So much: a specially designed device ensures that the areas that should be warm are warm. There is a lot of high tech in the inflatable models. The Russians also resort to these misleading maneuvers.

Russia also relies on hot air decoys

As early as 2009, the state news agency Ria Novosti reported on dummies of Russian T-72 and T-80 main battle tanks, the S-300 air defense system and Su and MiG fighter jets. Moscow also uses the replicas to protect strategic missile systems such as Iskander or Topol-M.

Russian military bloggers reported that there are special units in the Russian army that specialize in such deception maneuvers.

(with dpa material)