Putin’s air force has been caught red-handed. Satellite images of Russian runways show rows of airplanes on the tarmac of the country’s main bomber base, Engels-2. Except they aren’t all real airplanes. Eagle-eyed internet users have noticed that some of the planes cast no shadow… They are really just paintings of planes, positioned in between real aircrafts on the runway.
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The paintings aren’t just of any old planes - they are of Russia’s prized Tu-95MS strategic bombers and they have been carefully designed to be as realistic as possible. Satellite images obtained by The War Zone show the decoy planes, and they look pretty convincing - check for yourself here. Yet, Putin’s airforce forgot just one crucial thing: the sun.
Attempts at accuracy
Russia has gone in for the details in order to make these fake aircrafts as realistic as possible. In the past, they have used car tires to protect this type of plane at Engels-2.
The air base has comeunder attack several times since Russia’s war against Ukraine started.The Russians blame Ukraine, but they are yet to claim any of these attacks; they are sticking to their policy of not claiming attacks on Russian territories. And this base is deep in Russia, hundreds of miles southeast of Moscow.
Now, these paintings even include what look like tires set up to shield the Tu-95MS bombers. The Russians clearly put a lot of effort into making these decoys, which could be aimed to confuse Ukrainian attacks or drone strikes.
How people found out the planes were fake
The War Zone has pointed out that this was not a very well thought-through plan. The planes areeasily identifiable as fake even in commercially available satellite imagerybecause they cast no shadow as the sun moves over them throughout the course of a day.
Although this may seem like a silly idea, other decoy initiatives have worked for Russia. They have used fake wooden tanks and rocket launchers, and even inflatable tanks. The idea is to get opponents to waste fire on decoys and potentially give away their position.
However, this blunder is still hugely embarrassing for Putin as he continues to establish Russia's dominance in his 'special military operation' against Ukraine.
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Sources used:
Business Insider: Russia is painting decoy Tu-95 strategic bombers on the tarmac of its main bomber air base, report says
Dagens: Internet laughs at Russia's new tactical blunder
