Ukrainian Military Ordered Patriot SAM Mock-Ups

The Ukrainian military ordered dummy versions of the American Patriot air defense system from the local manufacturer.

The manufacturer of mock-ups told The Daily Telegraph that one mock-up will cost about $10,000.

Such dummies are needed for Russian missiles to be diverted to destroy false targets.

They are planned to be placed at a considerable distance from the front line.

In this scenario, they could only be destroyed by the Iskander operational-tactical missile system.

“The manufacturer can make a fake for about $10,000. The hope is that it attracts the attention of Moscow and its $3 million-a-pop Iskander cruise missiles,” the publication says.

The cost of the M901 launcher for the Patriot SAM is $10 million.

The main idea of these mock-ups is to tire out the enemy amid the delay in supplying Western military assistance to Kyiv.

In the war in Ukraine, good-faith ruse reached new heights amid reports of tank inflatable mock-ups, wooden rocket launchers, and other weapon layouts.

Over the past year, Ukrainian mock-up projects have spawned a kind of fake arms race, in which the better Russian troops find fakes, the more advanced the new models become.

“We are winning this race. Because they have a lot of missiles, and they are using them. They do not care about where to shoot them, so we are exhausting the enemy,” said the Ukrainian mock-up developer.

Recall that recently, volunteers from the Ukrainian city of Rivne have established the production of various mock-ups for the Ukrainian military.