Prague-based military blogger Praise the Steph, in his August 18 post on X/Twitter, drew attention to Russian claims the previous day that its forces had tracked down and destroyed a Ukrainian M270 multiple rocket launcher system (MLRS) after it fired a salvo of missiles in support of Kyiv’s operations in the Kursk region.
After the M270 drove off, Russian forces lost sight of the vehicle before one of their drones thought it had found the launcher hidden in trees a few kilometers from Chervona Dibrova in Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast. They then called in a $3 million Iskander-M missile to destroy it.
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However, according to the Czech blogger, they actually hit an inflatable M270 dummy made by the Děčín-based company Inflatech, whose slogan is: “The art of war is deception.” Unlike the first inflatable dummies that appeared on the battlefields in the 1960s, their dummies are much more than “tank-shaped balloons.”
It should come as no surprise that Ukraine is well versed in the “maskirovka,” the art of deception, which played a role in all aspects of Soviet military planning, and that it is taking the art of deception on the battlefield to a new level.
Inflatech’s decoys are replicas of over 30 types of Western and Soviet/Russian military vehicles that can be used for both complex training and combat operations. Examples include the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), the BM-30 Smerch, Pantsir-S1 and Patriot air defense systems, and the Abrams, Leopard, T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks. Their products also include infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and armored personnel carriers, combat aircraft, military trucks, radars and even naval targets.
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Russia rules out peace talks as Ukraine claims progress
Two and a half years after the start of the Russian invasion, Ukraine unexpectedly sent troops and tanks across the border on August 6 and claims to be making new progress practically every day.
On July 7, Moscow released a video claiming to show it hit two Ukrainian Patriot air defense missiles and an associated radar, as well as an Iskander-M ballistic missile, near the Black Sea port of Yuzhne. In response, Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said Moscow had hit decoy targets designed to distract expensive enemy missiles.
As the Kyiv Post reported in September 2023, Ukraine is making extensive use of decoys manufactured by Metainvest, a company that creates fake copies of sophisticated weapons systems from scrap materials, thereby tricking Russian operators into using artillery, drones and missiles to destroy the systems.
Inflatech’s decoys are life-sized, self-propelled and mounted on small, tracked platforms controlled by radio and GPS, allowing them to simulate limited vehicle movements.
Not only is the plastic construction mobile and visually identical to its real-world counterpart, it also contains metal fibers that emit thermal, infrared (IR) and radar signatures that are close enough to those of the real thing to fool even the most sophisticated enemy. They can be quickly deployed and moved into place, allowing them to be quickly assembled and provide an alternative to using real military vehicles.
Inflatech has demonstrated its products to military leaders, defense contractors and government officials at defense exhibitions such as Eurosatory and the World Defense Show. The company says it is continually conducting research and development (R&D) on new materials and technologies to further increase the realism of its decoys and expand the range of models, including those deployed in Ukraine.
