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Inflatable tanks are used by the Ukrainian army on the front to deceive the Russian adversary. The technique is not new, since the British had already used it during the Second World War to trap the Nazis.
In Ukraine, war is also about deceiving the adversary. A Czech company is making fake inflatable weapons, such as a dummy tank and a fake US rocket launcher, recently supplied to the Ukrainian army. If the Czech company refuses to confirm that it sells its products to Ukraine, it admits having doubled its profits since the beginning of the conflict.
Rubber tanks in World War II
The technique is far from new. At the end of the Second World War, the British had deployed rubber tanks, to make the Nazis believe that the landing would take place in Pas-de-Calais and not in Normandy. The war in Ukraine brought inflatable weapons back into fashion. In a video, a Ukrainian army anti-aircraft battery is attacked by a Russian drone in the region of Zaporizhia (Ukraine). But the target is actually fake. For its part, the French army has some inflatable weapons, but only for training purposes.