Russians fall for Ukrainian airplane dummy
The Russian army uses a drone to attack a Ukrainian aircraft that it believes to be an SU-25 fighter jet - but it soon becomes clear that it has obviously fallen victim to a trick. The supposed fighter jet turns out to be a dummy, as Russian war bloggers discover.
A video is currently doing the rounds on social networks in which a Russian Lancet drone blows up a supposedly Ukrainian aircraft. The video shows how the drone films the plane from a bird's eye view, then zooms in closer and finally an explosion can be seen on the fuselage of the plane. The Russian Telegram channel "Dnipro Border Guard" shared the video on Thursday and wrote: "The SU-25 VFU became another target of our Lancet drone operations and was destroyed by a precise hit of a barrage ammunition. Great job guys!"
Shortly after the video was shared on Telegram, several Russian war bloggers expressed doubts about the authenticity of the Ukrainian aircraft. According to the military bloggers, what initially looks like a Soviet SU-25 fighter plane, of which Ukraine has several, turns out to be a fake. Several inconsistencies rule out the destruction of a functional aircraft, the bloggers write in their Telegram channels.
For example, there is a lack of suitable technology around the aircraft and the plane is leaning, writes one blogger in his Telegram channel "Fighterbomber". In addition, the aircraft was too badly chipped even for an old plane and looked dilapidated. The drone strike did not cause a fire and there were no people on site. "All of these signs can be explained," it continues, but all of them together are "too much of a good thing". "As far as I can tell, it's a dead piece of wood."
"Dummy made of shit and sticks"
Czech military analyst Jakub Janovsky, who writes for the Dutch open source intelligence website Oryx, also believes the plane is a dummy. "Confirmed as a decoy - a pretty good one that can only be recognized up close due to differences in detail," he writes on X, posting a picture of a real SU-25 fighter plane. A first indication that the plane is a fake is the cockpit, he tells Sergej Maier from the ntv/RTL verification team. "The cockpit has the wrong shape," says Janovsky. In addition, the wing around the engine is clearly different from that of the SU-25.
The pro-Russian Telegram channel Aviahub, which has more than 15,000 subscribers, writes about the image of the attacked aircraft: "Judging by the shabbiness, imitation of the cockpit lantern and indistinct beam mount, we can draw the following conclusions: It is definitely either a dead plane that flew a long time ago or a dummy made of shit and sticks." There was no defense from the Ukrainian side - there were no people to be seen either.
Janovsky from Oryx considers speculation that it could be an old aircraft that has been refurbished to be unlikely: "The structure differs from a real SU-25 in so many places that I believe it is a homemade dummy." However, it is still unclear what Ukraine is aiming to achieve with this. According to Janovsky, such decoys are a good way to get Russia to waste its longer-range precision-guided munitions. Previous reports of such decoys indicate that they have even attracted attacks with cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
Decoys "quite simple and cheap"
If the video of the Russian Lancet drone had been cut shorter, the aircraft would not have been recognizable as a decoy, says Janovsky. Although the Ukrainian dummy was not perfect, it was "still very good". Dummies of this kind are also "quite simple and cheap to make" if you don't get hung up on small details such as radar signatures.
The airfield where the dummy aircraft was hit is located around 70 kilometers from the front line near the village of Krywyh Rih. Satellite images confirm the location of the airfield, which matches the information in the drone video. According to Janvosky, the Russian drone made it past the Ukrainian air defense.
Another reason for the dummy could be that the Ukrainians wanted to divert attention from the locations of the real aircraft and lure the Russians onto a false trail. Since the start of the war, the Ukrainian military has had to move its few aircraft almost every hour to prevent Russian drones from locating the site and destroying the fighter jets. Ukraine has not yet commented on the incident.
The Russian military analyst mentioned that the structure of the supposedly destroyed Ukrainian aircraft differs from a real SU-25 in numerous ways, leading him to believe it's a homemade dummy. Despite its flaws, the decoy was considered quite effective by military experts.
The pro-Russian Telegram channel Aviahub questioned the authenticity of the attacked aircraft, describing it as a "dumb decoy made of shit and sticks." They also noted that there was no defense from the Ukrainian side, further fueling speculation about the aircraft's true nature.
Source: www.ntv.de
