Inflatable Russian Tanks

Fool the enemy with these Russian-made inflatable decoys…

Here’s another crazy idea involving tanks, once again from the Russians – this time it’s not floating tanks, it’s inflatable tanks and weaponry. The life-sized model inflatable’s were designed to act as decoys, and are made of special material that shows up on radar like the real thing.

As well as inflatable tanks there’s missile launchers, silos, radio towers, convoy trucks, bunkers, and even fighter-jets.

With a collection of these inflatable props, any army can appear to be heavily armed to the watchful eye of enemy radar.

The replica decoys are lightweight – the tank for example weighs just 90kgs – and can be easily deployed in a matter of seconds. Needless to say the cost of the inflatables is much cheaper than the originals – around 100 times according to the BBC.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen these inflatable decoys. They first showed up on the Internet in 2008 when EnglishRussia.com (I’m assuming that’s who was first?) kindly translated the article from Russian website ‘Rusbal.ru’.

The guys over at Gizmodo even wondered if the whole thing was a hoax and if the BBC were the latest victims. However as the things were definitely built, it would seem rather wasteful not to use them as decoys.

---

Share This

Related Posts:

Tags: Defense, Military, Military-News, Tanks, Video

• X-51A Waverider Sets New Speed Record
• X-47B Makes First Cruise Flight
• Visby Class Corvette Stealth Warships
• US Navy Drone Captures Drug Smugglers
• US Army LEMV Hybrid Airship