April 2, 2024
Patriot air defense system launcher.Photo courtesy: Bundeswehr
The Ukrainian military has ordered a dummy version of the American Patriot air defense system from a local manufacturer.
mockup maker Said According to the Daily Telegraph, each mockup costs about $10,000.
Such dummies are needed to repurpose Russian missiles to destroy the wrong targets.
It will be placed quite far away from the front lines.
In this scenario, it can only be destroyed by Operation Iskander tactical missile systems.
“Manufacturers can make a fake for about $10,000. This is expected to attract the attention of Moscow and the Iskander cruise missiles, which cost $3 million each.” says the publication.
The cost of the M901 launcher for the Patriot SAM is $10 million.
The main purpose of these models is to wear down the enemy while the supply of Western military aid to Kiev is delayed.
Good intentions have reached new heights in the Ukraine war, with reports of inflatable models of tanks, wooden rocket launchers and other weapons being deployed.
Over the past year, Ukrainian model projects have sparked a kind of fake arms race, with the better the Russian military is at spotting fakes, the more advanced the new models become.
“We’re winning this race because they have a lot of missiles and they’re using them. We’re wearing them down because they don’t care where they shoot.” A Ukrainian mockup developer said:
Recall that recently volunteers from the Ukrainian city of Rivne established the production of various mock-ups for the Ukrainian army.
