The Ukrainian Military is Very Clever … and Devious

It looks like the launcher for a six-pack of the very-expensive, super-sonic, self-guiding, long-range, extremely-effective HIMARS rockets and their control complex. The USA recently supplied these to Ukraine. They are doing real damage to Russian targets far behind the lines. But it isn’t.

Ukraine is fielding dozens of wooden mockups or decoys. This is one of them.

It is built on an old truck body which looks very military and is a seriously detailed replica of a HIMARS weapon system. However, it is all plywood built in a factory and driven (or towed …. the trucks don’t all still work) to a logical spot in the rear of the battlefield. The plan is to have it “discovered” by Russian sympathizers or scouts and reported to the Russian military.

Often, a very-expensive, long-range, highly-effective Russian missile zooms in and blows it to splinters. That’s a Russian missile that can’t be used to destroy a real HIMARS installation or an ammunition storage building.

This is another example of the “MacGyver” skills of the Ukrainian military.