Radar was a vacuum cleaner – Ukraine deceives Russia with wooden dolls

It is not without reason that Russia focuses on the defense missile system supplied by Germany: the Diehl Defense device protects the attacked country against air attacks by drones, aircraft or cruise missiles. Ukraine has only four of these systems, so the alleged destruction of one caused great excitement.

Dummy was served on a presentation platter
But Russia may have fallen for a deceptive maneuver. Knowledgeable viewers noted in the video that neither the command post nor soldiers are seen in the video. It was also unusual for the valuable device to be left so exposed in an open field.

Details do not match original
There are even more discrepancies. A rectangular block can be seen where the spare tires are normally located. The shape of the driver’s cabin is also slightly different: rear-view mirrors, which should be visible under the camouflage net, are also missing, according to observers. The fact that the target only caught fire with the second hit is also an indication that only a dummy was attacked. Even with the first blow, more smoke or even fire should have been visible, because flammable liquids such as gasoline and hydraulic oil would have ignited in the vehicle, the trade magazine ‘Army Recognition’ shows in a report.

Su-25 fighter jet also turned out to be an imitation
This is not the first time that Moscow has used such means to fool Kiev. A few weeks ago, a supposed Su-25 fighter jet was attacked, which was later identified by war bloggers as a dummy – see the post on Platform X below. Experts discovered that the cockpit was the wrong shape.

Aluminum foil around wood to fool thermal imaging cameras
As German military expert Gustav Gressel from the European Council on Foreign Relations explained to ntv.de, dummies of other military equipment have also been used in the past, such as the HIMARS multi-rocket artillery system or the American M-777 howitzer. The decoys are usually made of wood or wood-metal construction. “Anything that is of high quality and attracts Russian fire is imitated in this way,” says Gressel. To correctly represent the heat signature, metal is often used. By wrapping aluminum foil around wood, the Ukrainians could also detect the structures using thermal imaging cameras.

Waste around dummies is intended to make the scene realistic
To make the illusion perfect, the immediate environment around the dolls is also staged. “Not only the rough lines, but also the details must be correct, because the drone cameras sometimes have quite good resolutions,” the expert explains. Food waste and drinking bottles around the replicas would give the impression that there were pitches nearby. To ensure that the so-called ‘radar’ can run like the original, a vacuum cleaner motor has been partially converted.

Moscow also relies on dummies
Russia is also trying to provoke attacks from Ukraine with cheap dummies, so that ammunition is wasted. As satellite images show, Moscow’s military may have painted the silhouette of fighter jets on the ground of the Primorsko-Akhtarsk air base to confuse the enemy.