Main image: The Raven air defence system being provided to Ukraine, Peter Tarry for The Times
The United Kingdom is supplying Ukraine with decoy mock-ups of military equipment to mislead the Russians about the actual delivery of weapons.
This was reported by The Times.
These decoys are also intended to force the occupiers to waste their ammunition and drones targeting them on the battlefield instead of real equipment.
The mock-ups imitate, in particular, the main battle tanks Challenger 2 and the AS-90 self-propelled artillery units that the UK has provided to Ukraine as part of military aid.
Royal Air Force squadron commander Lowri Simner emphasized the strategic importance of these decoys, stating,
“We haven’t gifted a huge amount of these, so anything we can do to make the quantities look greater on the front line is advantageous to us.”
This deception tactic is used at a time when Russian forces increasingly rely on satellite imagery and modern drones to observe the battlefield for targets.
In response, the UK has stepped up its support by producing mock-ups that are hard to distinguish from real weapons.
First, digital photos of British equipment are taken and printed on lightweight materials. Then the mock-ups are sent disassembled to Ukraine.
They can be quickly assembled and deployed by Ukrainian forces on the frontline to confuse the enemy.
Colonel Oliver Todd, a Royal Marines officer and procurement officer for the Kindred task force, said the UK can supply up to 30 decoys for every five real systems delivered.
“They look exactly like the real thing. It’s pretty easy to fool you,” Todd said, noting that even from a distance of 25 meters, it’s hard to tell them apart from real weapons.
