A New Weapon in Russia’s Arsenal, and It’s Inflatable

A New Weapon in Russia’s Arsenal, and It’s Inflatable

I know that decoys have been used in war for years.

But this is actually pretty cool. And I'm wondering If I can get an inflatable F-14 for my yard for 4th of July.


Also in addition to the jets, the company makes inflatable tanks and missile launchers.

Very ingenious by the russians.

Might be cool to get a few tanks for a paintball game. That would be fun.

Deep in the Russian countryside, the grass sways in a late-summer breeze. In the distance, the sun glistens off the golden spires of a village church. It is, to all appearances, a typically Russian scene of imperturbable rural tranquillity.

Until a sleek MIG-31 fighter jet suddenly appears in a field, its muscular, stubby wings spreading to reveal their trademark red star insignia. A few moments later, a missile launcher pops up beside it.

Cars on a nearby road pull over, the drivers gaping in amazement at what appear to be fearsome weapons, encountered so unexpectedly in this serene spot. And then, as quickly as they appeared, the jet and missile launcher vanish.

“If you study the major battles of history, you see that trickery wins every time,” Aleksei A. Komarov, the military engineer in charge of this sleight of hand, said with a sly smile. “Nobody ever wins honestly.”

Funny as I just finished reading this story ....Why Would Pentagon Pretend to Fly Russia’s Military Jets?
journal-neo.org...

a reply to: the2ofusr1

I thought that was for training purposes.

But you never know.

Always wanted that inflateable rocket that Tintin had (here it was called Tim&Struppi) as a child.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

For the same reason they have for the past forty plus years. Training. They first used Soviet paint and tactics, now they use Russian paint and tactics. It's damn good air to air training.

I especially enjoyed this part of the article.

In addition to the United States repainting its warplanes to resemble Russian military livery, it is also fairly obvious that America’s F-18 is fairly similar to the Russian Su-34 in appearance. In fact, only a military expert can tell the difference, but only when pictures are presented in high resolution. The folding wings of the American F-18 can only be seen in on the runway, and as for the vertical stabilizers of the F-18, they are only slightly different from the Russian Su-34.

My wife, who, when we got together, couldn't tell a 747 from a 737, or an Airbus from a Boeing, can easily tell the difference between the two aircraft. Is she suddenly a military expert?

a reply to: Zaphod58

I guess it could be considered multi roll as Kerry's intercept audio had mentioned that the White hats needed pic's of the Russians bombing to be legitimate . dont know for sure but it maybe . golf of Tonkin and Cuban false flags and all that jazz .

My wife, who, when we got together, couldn't tell a 747 from a 737, or an Airbus from a Boeing, can easily tell the difference between the two aircraft. Is she suddenly a military expert?

she may not be a expert but hanging around you for a spell might give the person the upper hand in these kinds of things .

a reply to: the2ofusr1

The farthest the Aggressors have gone out of the country is when the Alaska unit would go to Japan to train with the US units there. They don't deploy out of the country for other than that. There are only a couple of squadrons, and they are used at Nellis for Red and some Green Flag, Alaska for Red Flag West, and NAS Fallon for Top Gun. There aren't enough of them, and they're in far too much demand to deploy them to combat zones.

As for my wife, not nearly as much as you think. She can still barely tell the difference between most types of aircraft, but has absolutely no problem telling Russian from American aircraft. Anyone that knows anything about aircraft can tell the difference between an F-18 and an Su-34, and anyone with eyes can tell they're totally different aircraft.

Nice toy.. I would like one in my backyard

Reminds me of Hamas fake tanks

a reply to: Zaphod58

The front stabilizers and the pods extending from the back and wings are dead giveaways, that´s true.

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
Funny as I just finished reading this story ....Why Would Pentagon Pretend to Fly Russia’s Military Jets?
journal-neo.org...

There is nothing unusual about adversary training. The US Aggressor Squadrons (USAF/US Navy/USMC) have been painting their aircraft in Russian/Soviet and Warsaw Pact schemes for decades.

The US Navy unit featured in the pictures is VFC-12 based at Oceana, Virginia. The aim is to simulate variants of the Su-27 Flanker family. For many years the VFC-12 F/A-18 Hornets were in various versions of the Russian blue camo. For example this 2008 image.

VFC-12 F/A-18 2008

In recent years they changed over to the Russian splinter camo.

VFC-12 F/A-18 in Russian splinter camo

The charcoal gray and blue camouflage seen on the F/A-18 Hornet is to simulate the latest variants of the Flanker and Fullback family.

For example the Russian Navy Su-30SM

Russian Navy Su-30SM Flanker

Russian Air Force Su-30SM

Russian Air Force Su-30SM

US Marine Corps Aggressor F-5s



See following for US Navy Aggressor F/A-18s and F-16s

a reply to: verschickter

The huge giveaway between the two is the cockpit area. The -34 has side by side seating, resulting in a hunched, duckbill look to the cockpit area. The Hornet uses front and back seating, resulting in a much flatter, sharper nose, that could never be mistaken for a -34.

There is nothing new about this. Inflatable aircraft and tanks have been around since World War 2. They assembled a phony army in England and put Patton in charge of it to fool the Germans into thinking that the Normandy invasion was a feint.

Goodyear built an inflatable airplane that actually flew. en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: Zaphod58

I was going by what one would see when on ground, looking up, as a amateur in military plane spotting, those things stand out to me. From the bottom and some distance that you normally have as a civilian, the stabilizers(front pair of wings) are a dead give away, when it comes to silhouette against the sky, or not? I´m thinking of the normal person looking up, like me, they will be like -wait a minute, there is a second pair of wings??

a reply to: verschickter

The canards are a big giveaway as well, even from the ground the cockpit will give it away too. It's much wider than a Hornet.