Russia's aircraft decoy strategy fails to fool Ukrainian intelligence
Russia has been forced to implement a number of decoy and deception techniques in an attempt to obfuscate successful Ukrainian strikes on military locations, according to the latest British intelligence update posted on X on Apr. 2.
At Kirovske Airfield on occupied Crimea there are decoy Russian fighter aircraft painted on the concrete. Such paintings have also been observed across at least 12 more Russian air bases, demonstrating the extent of Russian concern of future strikes and their ability to repel them.
However, the scheme falters as Russian helicopters are frequently seen landing on these very decoy designs, inadvertently disclosing the actual military strength and order at these bases—a detail Russia presumably aims to conceal from Ukrainian intelligence.
This isn't Russia's first attempt to disguise its military assets. British intelligence had earlier noted Russian endeavors to camouflage aircraft and naval vessels to reduce their susceptibility to Ukrainian attacks.
Last October, OSINT analyst MT_Anderson wrote that the Russian military had replaced several fighter jets at the Belbek airfield in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea with painted ones.
On Sept. 29, satellite imagery from Planet Labs captured painted silhouettes of the aircraft on the tarmac at a Russian air base in an effort to protect its Tu-95 strategic bombers from Ukrainian drone strikes.
On March 29, the Telegraph reported on the surge in demand for decoy weapons systems in Ukraine amid increased Russian attacks.
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