Bob Mullen: Painted silhouettes

Continued from Bob Mullen: Model rockets

Another of our ideas was to go down to major military airports and paint black "Silhouettes" on the ground as if aircraft were parked on the runways. Russian satellites flying over would see the black paint spots and conclude that we had aircraft with full stealth capability or that we had moved them into hangers so they could not be seen from space.

We thought we should requisition dozens of scientists ordered to the airbase. They could sit around in luxurious surroundings playing "Durak" (a Russian card game similar to poker) and drink vodka. They would then announce to the news that they spent the entire day drinking vodka and playing cards. The World would come to believe the vodka/Durak image was a ploy and that they were, in reality, working on special, secret projects.

Additionally, we would mount jet engines on trailers. We would move them around the airbase to randomly heat the runways to make it appear that there were more aircraft than existed in reality.

A long-standing joke around the club was that Russia would never dream of invading the USA while our group was around. We wouldn't attack anyone, but we would steal all their tools.

In retrospect, the Russians have reinvented an idea we thought of over forty years ago.

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In an MSN article dated October 1st, 2023

Russia is painting decoy Tu-95MS “Bear-H” strategic bombers on the tarmac of its main bomber air base, report says

Russian TU-95 in flight

© Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

• Russia is painting silhouettes of its valuable Tu-95 strategic bombers on the tarmac of an air base.
• The decoys could be an attempt to confuse possible Ukrainian strikes, The War Zone reported.
• But they are easy to spot even on commercially available satellite imagery.

Russia is painting the silhouettes of its prized TU-95MS “Bear-H” strategic bombers at its main bomber base, Engels Air Base, also known as Engels-2, as a decoy, a report says.

Satellite imagery obtained by The War Zone shows the two-dimensional painted decoys on the tarmac of Engels-2, a strategic bomber base east of Saratov in Russia.

Notice that the two on the right do not have shadows on the ground

The War Zone noted that the pictured decoys might be made with a cloth or canvas, but it said paint was most likely given the lack of dimension seen in the images taken on September 29, 2023 by Planet Labs.

An image of decoys can be seen here.

Russia has been known to attempt makeshift defenses of its bombers at the base, previously using car tires to shield its Tu-95s.

The newly pictured decoys also appear to have what looks like car tires depicted on them, suggesting that they have tried hard to make them appear realistic.

Russia blamed the attacks on Ukraine, but Kyiv did not claim them, keeping in line with its policy not to claim attacks on Russian soil. The decoy paintings at Engels-2 could be aimed at confusing any possible Ukrainian strike operations or drone operators.

However, The War Zone notes that they are unlikely to be effective, given that it is easy to spot as fake even in commercially available satellite imagery.

The use of infrared reflective or absorptive paints could confuse weapons like cruise missiles, but it's unclear how effective the two-dimensional decoys will be, the outlet said.

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See also

Bob Mullen

• Bob Mullen: Model rockets
• Bob Mullen: Dirt road fetish
• Bob Mullen: Painted silhouettes

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