Russia orders inflatable copies of tanks, missiles

LONDON - Russia has placed an order for inflatable copies of its tanks, aircrafts and even missiles at a cost of 2,000 pounds per model to mislead enemies.

The order has been criticised by military analysts who said Russia should be spending its wealth on purchasing real military equipment rather than copies, Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

Russian designers claim that the tank replicas can be inflated in barely four minutes, while missile models takes just five minutes to set up.

The replicas are reportedly indistinguishable from the actual hardware from as little as 350 feet away.

“Inflatable military hardware is most effective in conflict situations when there is a need to confuse the enemy,” the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported.

“But at a time of peace, duping foreign intelligence networks with such expensive toys is a questionable luxury.”

Alexander Talanov, the director of the scientific research centre that makes the rubber models, said the defence ministry was keen on acquiring more copies of the Soviet-era S-300 surface-to-air missile system.

He pointed out that such models were fashioned to fool satellite and air reconnaissance and the US as well as China had replicas of their own hardware.

The inflatable missiles are expected to be ready by the end of next year.