Air mimicry: Russia paints fake planes at 9 air bases to confuse the Ukrainian Armed Forces
The Russian military painted decoy planes at nine air bases. The decoys did not cast shadows in sunny weather and did not change location, said Brady Africk, an analyst.
The Russian armed forces have been painting decoy aircraft at their air bases for a year, including Su-27, Su-35, MiG-31, Tu-95MS, etc. In this way, the enemy allegedly tried to confuse the guidance systems of Ukrainian long-range kamikaze drones or attack planners. This was reported by Defense Express.
Analyst Brady Africk said on his X (Twitter) account that Russia painted decoy planes at nine air bases. However, unlike real boards, these did not cast shadows or change location.
Over the past year, Russia has painted decoy aircraft at several air bases involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
Unlike real aircraft, these flat decoys do not cast shadows or change locations. pic.twitter.com/tt3e7kUTJj
– Brady Africk (@bradyafr) March 7, 2024
Defense Express analysts noted that the massive scale of the Russian practice of drawing fake boards seems unexplainable. Because satellite imagery clearly shows that silhouettes do not provide shade in sunny weather. In addition, the airplanes are drawn with poor detail.
As Ukrainian long-range strike capabilities have grown, so has the number of decoys at Russian air bases involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
This thread shows several of the decoys Russian forces have painted at air bases that were once beyond Kyiv’s reach. (1/8) pic.twitter.com/Yy68uZykRw
– Brady Africk (@bradyafr) January 30, 2024
“Accordingly, the logic here is that if an object looks fake in principle, no one will point a long-range kamikaze drone at it at all,” the statement said.
A similar situation arises if you see that radar satellites do not detect fake aircraft drawn by the enemy, so the doubt about targeting such objects increases. In addition, the Russians themselves did not pay attention to the “decoys” in their publications.
Why Russians draw silhouettes of airplanes at air bases
Defense Express said that the vast majority of downed Russian aircraft fall behind the front line, so one indirect way to calculate or confirm the losses of the Russian Armed Forces may be to record them on satellite images, in particular, how many aircraft are at a particular air base at a particular time.
After prolonged surveillance of several Russian air bases, analysts suggested that the enemy was trying to paint fake planes to complicate the probable calculation of losses from satellite images. Moreover, this practice was recorded at air bases located in relative proximity to the front line.
As a reminder, on December 30, 2023, OSINT investigator Brady Africk reported that the Russians had painted several aircraft at the military airbase in Prymorsko-Akhtarsk on the shores of the Azov Sea. In particular, the enemy does this to mislead observers from space.
