Why Russia's tank mockup fails to deceive: A closer look

As a tactical strategy, the use of mockups to deceive the enemy can be traced back to the origin of warfare itself. With time, the sophistication of these mockups has significantly evolved. Despite the prevalence of drones in today's warfare, mockups still remain an effective strategy to force the enemy to waste costly precision weapons.

For instance, we observe Ukraine utilizing Lancet-3 drones or Russia deploying M982 Excalibur missiles, GMLRS rockets, or JDAM guided bombs in response. More advanced are the professional inflatable and heated decoys from companies like the Czech-based INFLATECH. These decoys are capable of even deceiving drones equipped with thermal imaging. Lacking a sufficient number of these high-tech options, Ukrainians often resort to using wooden mockups to bridge the gap.

Despite the humble material, Ukrainians have convincingly replicated IRIS-T anti-aircraft launchers or Leopard 2 tanks. Russians, too, have created numerous mockups, although the quality of some leaves much to be desired. Today, we discuss an attempted replica of a tank from the T-72 family, which proved to be less than convincing.

Giving it even a cursory glance, glaring errors in proportions, and many missing details make the mockup easy to dismiss. Notable inaccuracies include misaligned Kontakt-5 reactive armor bricks on the turret, incorrect hatches, absence of periscopes, and the missing Sosna-U system turret.

Additionally, clear details like the untouched wooden boxes at the back of the hull suggest a lack of effort in creating a convincing disguise. These glaring mistakes mean any drone equipped with a decent daylight camera can easily differentiate this mockup from a real target.

Said mockup, however, might fare better when up against Russian drones, which often use low-end commercial photography gear. As a result, the footage these drones capture tends to be of lower quality than that of their Ukrainian counterparts.