Crimea Bridge Smoke Mystery Solved: A Look at Russia's Camouflage Tactics

The appearance of smoke on the Crimea Bridge on May 24 stirred significant curiosity among those monitoring the conflicts involving Russia and Ukraine. While Moscow announced the occurrence was due to security drills near the infrastructure, speculations about potential attacks or fires also emerged. British military intelligence clarified the situation, attributing the smoke to the somewhat enigmatic TDA-3 vehicle.

This explanation from British military intelligence highlighted that the smoke observed on the Crimea Bridge was a smoke screen intended to obscure the structure. This action tested the feasibility of creating such a screen, a point highlighted by Defence Express. According to British officials, vehicles equipped with TDA-3 smoke generators were responsible, presumably operated by the 28th brigade of the Russian Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops. This deployment of smoke is an aspect of "maskirovka," a strategy of Russian operational camouflage.

The TDA-3 vehicles, introduced into service between 2016 and 2017, are notably efficient in executing their purpose. Russian designers have incorporated lessons from the development of predecessors, like the TDA-2K and TDA-U models, enhancing the TDA-3's effectiveness threefold in both speed and coverage of smoke screen creation. Moreover, the vehicle can deploy aerosols to conceal military units or weaponry from direct line of sight and radar detection.

The Russian military publication Top War described the TDA-3 as being mounted on the KamAZ-5350 6x6 truck chassis and weighing approximately 34,722 pounds. A significant improvement is that it requires only a two-person crew for operation, managing three distinct vehicle modules. The first module encompasses power equipment, including batteries; the second is fitted with two tanks for the smoke mixture or its components, holding roughly 238 and 660 gallons, respectively; and the third module accommodates a powder tank with a capacity of about 713 gallons, alongside devices for mixing the components.

The TDA-3 also has a remote control console and a suite of meteorological instruments. As reported by Top War, the vehicle can be readied for operation in just over 5 minutes, and it consumes powdered smoke material at approximately 29 pounds per minute. Depending on the intensity of deployment, which varies from about 2.6 to 7.9 gallons per minute, a single load of the liquid mixture can sustain a smoke screen for durations ranging from 110 minutes up to 6 hours.