Russia's new "Inflatable Weapons"

[vxicepickxv]

Now do inflatable buildings!

They already do.

 

[Ldude893]

The allies in WWII did the exact same thing before D-Day. In England, they built up fake camps and supply depos, inflatable tanks and fake amphibious crafts, all to deceive German recon aircraft. They also sent out fake transmissions to Germany that deluded them into believing that the invasion would take place in Calais, France.

Quite clever, actually.

 

[THEfog101]

Now do inflatable buildings!

They already do.

Weapon of Mass Terror and Hysteria. Absolutely Brilliant.

 

[HK_01]

I think this is completely ridiculous. I don't know who's going to fall for a bunch of fucking balloons that look vaguely like a tank. besides what happens when a spy comes in with a needle and trips and pokes a hole in one of them? Then your entire arsenal is gone once he gets done.

They look vividly like a tank to the naked eye, thermal imaging and radar. ANd they arent balloons, they are blow up tanks, silly!

Did you look at the picture in the article? I don't know, maybe it was just that I knew what I was looking at but I have to say that I was in no way impressed with the Russian balloons. Their made of old hot air balloons therefore as far as I concerened they are balloons

From more than 50 metres away I'm quite sure that thing looks a lot like a tank. And I'd say it's rather uncommon to get that close to the enemy.

Also, guys, it's not quite the same as what the Allies did. This is a lot quicker to deploy and takes less effort and it has some high-tech stuff in it to fool sensor equipment.

 

[Something Amyss]

There's a fine line between genius and ridiculous. This straddles the line without shame.

 

[Vrach]

I think the Russian higher-ups have been playing a bit too much RUSE.

My thought exactly, but you know, that's not a bad thing, it's actually kinda awesome

Could definitely work if they look convincing enough. Especially if you mix them with the real tanks (assuming the difference is negligible), you could convince the enemy the bulk of the attack is on one side or that you just have a ridiculously large army coming at them. They could also reduce casualties as the enemy wastes fire on the fake tanks.

So yeah theoretically... it could be a very powerful tool.

Mandatory joke with such a subject however...
World War 3 is going to be awesome - American Batmen vs Russian Blowup Tanks

 

[Queen Michael]

This is like something out of a really good anime.

 

[similar.squirrel]

It had me at 'a cross between a ballistic missile and a bouncy castle', to be honest.

It would also be interesting to somehow replace the air being pumped into these with helium or hydrogen. I think the opposing forces would be bemused for long enough to get annihilated.

 

[deathbydeath]

beautiful. just beautiful

 

[drbarno]

This would be much better if they could sort out these to actually fire weapons as well.

 

[HellsingerAngel]

Communism: Using $1,000 blow up toys to destroy your $2,000,000 bombs.

Really, this is a pretty cool idea. It's an extremely cost effective way to get other armies to waste more costly ammunition on things that are relatively cheap to make. You also get the added bonus of being able to use these as decoys or bait in an ambush. Just set up an inflatable tank with some troops and a Stinger near-by and BAM! That attack helicopter they send in is fucked!

Overall, neat idea and very practical. It just sounds a bit silly the way the news anchor positions it.

 

[Buizel91]

Bouncy Castles For The Win ^^

Correction...Bouncy Castles with Missile Launchers FTW! ^_^

 

[tehbeard]

In soviet russia, army blow up own tanks!

Sorry, it had to be done.

This isn't a new stratergy, that said they do look quite cool.

 

[jamesworkshop]

I was about go to bed... and I saw this article. Apparently Russia is/has made a bunch of inflatable copies of tanks, vehicles, and other sorts of military equipment that is able to take deception to a new level that seems both effective and very cheap to do:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11511886

Spoiler

The Russian military has come up with an inventive way to deceive the enemy and save money at the same time: inflatable weapons.

They look just like real ones: they are easy to transport and quick to deploy.

You name it, the Russian army is blowing it up: from pretend tanks to entire radar stations.

The decoys are a hundred times cheaper than the real thing, which means Moscow will save a lot of money by blowing up its own weapons.

On the edge of Moscow, two men carry a black duffle bag into a field, then drop it on the ground.

When they open the bag, they take out a large sheet of plastic. It looks like a tent or a tarpaulin.

In fact, it's the Russian army's latest strategic weapon. It doesn't need ammunition - just air.

On goes the pump, in goes the air and the plastic sheet begins to rise and take shape.

A turret appears, then out pops a long plastic gun barrel. This is an inflatable Russian tank.

State-of-the-art

When the men pump up their next piece of plastic, this one expands into a S-300 rocket launcher, complete with giant truck and inflatable rockets. It is a cross between a ballistic missile and a bouncy castle.

And waiting to be blown up are inflatable MiG fighter jets - even entire Russian radar stations.

These state-of-the-art stand-ins are among the most advanced military decoys in the world.

What they lack in firepower, they make up for in flexibility: they are light and can be deployed quickly to deceive the enemy.

They are also very realistic. They are made of a special material that tricks enemy radar and thermal imaging into thinking they are real weapons.

The inflatables are stitched together at a former hot-air balloon factory.

"I'm proud to be making entire rocket-launchers and tanks for our armed forces," says Lena, who is stitching a surface-to-air missile system.

"When you finish sewing them and you watch them being filled with air, it's so satisfying."

I mean, I know its not likely that Russia is going to be using this stuff in reality very much (I hope), but if they did chances are they would have their "inflatable armies" be able to trick their foes quite nicely. I think that the Allies in WW2 did this a little bit as part of the preparation to invade Normandy, but I doubt they were able to create dummies that, if this article is to be believed, can even trick radar and thermal imaging into believing that they are real. This sort of stuff just might have some real effect in the future if it ever actually ends up in a real situation.

So, what do you think? Fancy idea? A stroke of genius? Plain silly? All of the above?

Either way, beware the Russian balloon tanks!

- Rei

Fill them with hellium

the ultimate weapon

 

[antipope]

Now do inflatable buildings!

They already do.

Weapon of Mass Terror and Hysteria. Absolutely Brilliant.

You laugh now but soon comrade ducky will lead the glorious inflatable army to victory over the west.

 

[thylasos]

I believe Monty did the same thing in North Africa, to distract enemy bombers from real convoys.

 

[ssgt splatter]

Yeah, this is pretty cool.
Let's take a hint from Russia and turn all our weapons into inflatable balloons and NERF guns so that anyone and everyone can participate in world war 3. Fun for the whole family.

 

[Sebenko]

Didn't they do this in WWII to decieve spy plane runs?