A Czech company producing inflatable weapon decoys, including HIMARS rocket launchers and Abrams tanks, on Monday said that it had seen a spike in demand since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started last year.
The synthetic silk decoys inflated with an electric or gasoline blower are used to fool the enemy in the battlefield, making them target the air-filled decoys instead of real weaponry.
Inflatech Co’s managers have refused to confirm selling their products to Ukraine, citing military secrecy, but they said that output had jumped by 100 percent over the past 12 months.
Photo: AP
“Definitely we’re selling to a lot of governments around the world, not only in Europe,” Inflatech sales and marketing director Poven Kumaresan told reporters.
The company’s three dozen employees produce 30 to 40 decoys a month, Kumaresan said.
The decoys including tanks, armored vehicles and even jet fighters weigh between 25kg and 90kg, and take two to four people to handle in the battlefield.
Photo: AFP
The company can come up with a new design within 72 hours if it has the exact plans of the original piece of military hardware, while it takes up to two weeks if working “from scratch,” Kumaresan said.
It had taken 60 days to ship a replica HIMARS rocket launcher after the order was placed, he said.
Inflatech has so far rolled out “dozens” of fake HIMARS while the real weapon is wreaking havoc on Russian invaders in Ukraine.
Inflatech’s products are classified as military materiel and must be approved by government authorities.
The Czech government last month said that it had provided Ukraine with military aid worth about US$500 million since the invasion started on Feb. 24 last year.
Inflatech chief executive officer Vojtech Fresser said that key qualities of the firm’s products included a look true to the original.
“If I don’t have binoculars, looking from a distance of 150-200 metres, I won’t be able to tell whether it is a real weapon or a decoy,” Fresser said.
The engine used to inflate the weapons also emanates heat that fools infrared sensors.
The inflatable decoys cost US$10,000 to US$100,000, much less than the rockets used to destroy them, Fresser said.
“If I force the enemy to destroy my product with something that is at least four times as expensive, but in practice it is even 20 times, then I win economically,” he said.
Kumaresan said that the company keeps upgrading its products, looking to make the decoys mobile in the future.
Inflatech, which originally made the decoys for training purposes, used to produce toys or tailor-made models according to customers’ wishes.
“We produce according to the customer’s specific needs. We’re not an e-shop where you could choose,” Fresser said.
There is “no limit” on output or product range and the company expects rapid growth over the next three years, he said.
“Of course I would prefer to produce toys for children, but first of all we must ensure a safe world for them,” Fresser said.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS