The Significance of Inflatable Tanks in the Conflict in Ukraine

• Joey Frankhuisen

  Berlin office

At large tables in a factory hall in Děčín, a Czech town just across the German border, five women sew large sails with camouflage colors together. At the side of the hall, an employee unrolls a large sheet of plastic and turns on a motor. The bag fills with air and within a few minutes a life-size Abrams tank forms.

This tank is part of more than thirty inflatable ones decoys, copies of real military systems produced by the Czech company Inflatech. They are used in wartime to mislead the enemy, for example to ensure that the enemy wastes expensive ammunition. Among other things, Inflatech produces inflatable versions of the Himars missile systems and a legion of old Soviet-made tanks used by the Ukrainian army.

Up close it seems unlikely that this bag of air can mislead a military opponent, but according to CEO Vojtech Fresser that is a completely different story at two hundred meters away. “Without optical equipment, our decoys are indistinguishable from a real one for a few seconds. If a fighter plane has to decide quickly whether or not to send a missile, this is enough.”

Watch how the inflation tanks are used:

Whether Inflatech’s products will also be delivered to Ukraine is a military secret, according to Fresser. “I can’t confirm this as this is classified information, but if they use effective inflatable decoys they must be from Inflatech.”

The Russians are also known to use inflatable decoys. Not only because of objections in principle, but also because of embargoes and European legislation, Inflatech’s products cannot be exported to Russia. Fresser: “Our systems are officially military equipment. Any delivery abroad must therefore be approved by the Ministry of Defense.”

The use of inflatable decoys is not new: in World War II, the British already used them to mask where the invasion would take place on D-Day.

During ‘Operation Fortitude’, Churchill had large numbers of decoys placed in Dover. This made it seem as if the Allies would land in Pas-de-Calais instead of Normandy. It worked: when the Allied troops landed in Normandy, the Germans refused to move their troops as they believed it was just a distraction from the actual Calais landing.

Due to technological developments, it now takes more than a bag of air to mislead an enemy. Fresser: “We use material that ensures that the decoys are indistinguishable from the real thing, even with infrared viewers, thermal imaging viewers and on radar.”

This technique should therefore ensure that opponents waste expensive military equipment on a cheaper decoy. Fresser: “Our models cost between ten thousand and one hundred thousand euros, depending on the size of the model and the quantities in which they are produced. Popular missiles such as the Javelin quickly cost three to four times as much as our products. If a missile is one of hits our decoys, we win economically.”