Russia is reportedly painting fake fighter jets on the tarmacs of their airfields, in an attempt to stymie Ukrainian defense efforts, according to images collected in a recent intelligence report.
"It is likely that as a result of continued successful Ukrainian strikes on military locations, Russia has been forced to implement a number of decoy and deception techniques in an attempt to obfuscate Ukrainian targeting efforts," the British Ministry of Defence shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
"At Kirovskoe Airfield on occupied Crimea there are decoy Russian fighter aircraft painted on the concrete."
British officials further claimed that Russia's decoy tactics were flawed and failed to achieve their intended goals.
"Russian helicopters still regularly land on the painted decoy fighter silhouettes, completely undermining the deception attempt," the Ministry of Defense said. "This also reveals the true order of battle or aircraft strength at these airbases, which Russia is likely trying to mask from Ukraine's intelligence picture."
This is not the first instance of Russia painting decoy aircraft - presumably to confuse Ukrainian forces. In December, satellite images captured what appeared to be a row of planes at Primorsko-Akhtarsk air base, in southwestern Russia. One of the aircraft, however, was missing its shadow.
Last June, observers noted that there were apparently four fighter jet silhouettes painted on the ground at Yeysk air base. The pavement was visible under one of the silhouettes, making it clear that all four had been painted on the ground.
"I think it's generally a response to Ukraine's increasing capabilities in terms of being able to strike Russian airfields," intelligence analyst Brady Africk told Business Insider. "This is a relatively low-cost way to attempt to deter, or make it more difficult, to attack Russian aircraft."
