17.09.2025
Amid the displays of might at Zapad 2025—Russia and Belarus’s biennial joint military exercises—a partially inflated decoy fighter jet was spotted comically sagging by a runway.
Defense analyst Guy Plopsky highlighted the presence of the decoy plane in a post on X, in which he posted stills from a Russian MoD video.
The footage was taken at the naval air base, Severomorsk-1, in northwestern Russia.
In the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, both sides have extensively deployed thousands of life-like military equipment decoys to deceive their adversaries, squandering the enemy’s precious ammunition, time, and resources.
Decoy wars
Depleting expensive shells and missiles at low cost to the decoy’s owner is obviously hugely beneficial. The outlay for a decoy might be as little as $10,000, while one of Ukraine’s Excalibur GPS-guided shells costs $70,000, Forbes reported.
On the frontlines, nearly anything—be it radars, grenade launchers, jeeps, trucks, tanks, or even soldiers—could be a cleverly crafted fake, the BBC reported.
These decoys range from flat-pack designs and inflatables to 2D cutouts or specialized setups that mimic a tank’s radar signature by reflecting radio waves.
In October 2024, Russian forces claimed to have destroyed a Ukrainian M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) with an Iskander-M missile in the Kursk region. But it turned out to be a Ukrainian decoy.
For specific weapon systems in Ukraine, as many as half are deceptive replicas rather than the real thing, the BBC reported.
Indeed, some decoys in Ukraine are now mobile and equipped with metallic fibers that emit thermal, infrared (IR), and radar signatures, closely mimicking real vehicles to deceive even the most sophisticated of adversaries.
While drones and unmanned systems on the battlefield have emerged as a major innovation in the war in Ukraine, the deployment of decoys has a long history in warfare. Most famously, during World War II, the British created an entirely fake army group to deceive Nazi Germany, as part of preparations for the D-Day landings in Normandy.
https://tvpworld.com/88968799/zapad-2025-russian-inflatable-decoy-fighter-jet-comically-sags
Using decoys on the battlefield is one thing and quite normal, but during a show of might is very humiliating … especially when the decoy sags its wings as it deflates like a punctured tire.
Mafia land = Potemkin Village.
The nose cone on the plane in the image looks like a drunk russian’s penis. 😂
Maybe fakes are all that mafia land have left.
[…] military strength, has inadvertently turned this strategic ruse into a source of public ridicule. The video, released to showcase joint military drills with ally Belarus, featured a seemingly innocuous […]