Monday, November 14, 2016

The Islamic State Is Using Decoys In The Battle For Mosul

A tank made of wood that was used by Islamic State militants as a diversion tactic is seen in Bawiza, north of Mosul, Iraq November 13, 2016. REUTERS/Ari Jalal

Reuters: Islamic State uses wooden tanks and bearded mannequins in decoy attempts

Islamic State is using wooden replicas of tanks and Humvees in a bid to subvert an air campaign by the U.S.-led military coalition supporting Iraqi forces in the Mosul operations, even using bearded mannequins to simulate jihadist fighters.

The Iraqi army captured a handful of the mockups last week at a training site it retook from the group north of Mosul, Islamic State's last major stronghold in the country, which government forces have almost surrounded but only breached so far from one direction.

When seen close up, the models resemble toys but from a long distance they might be mistaken for real vehicles.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: These tactics have been used since the beginning of time.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was wondering why the SAA doesn't employ some of the same tactics to help counter the ATGM threat...

Jay Farquharson said...

Decoy's are usefull on defense, against air assets.

The Mark 1 eyeball peering at an immobile "tank" through a 1PN71-1 thermal/optical sight can spot even the smallest flaws.

Most air assets, from drones to aircraft have a very hard time spotting immobility , ( because they are in motion), or even fine detail.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I figure so much that they must have pretty good optics on the ground. In my world of fishing, gyroscopic binos are becoming more and more common to help spot birds and breaking fish at extreme distance. Birdschools at 5 miles...my 7x50s are nothing more than a paper weight now. But I still figure someone could produce a pretty detailed 2.5 dimensional t-72 cutout that could fool a jumpy spotter early in the morning, maybe run it on a small chassis...then again maybe I'm giving them (SAA) a little too much credit in ingenuity department.

Jay Farquharson said...

You are not giving the Mark 1 eyeball the 1million years of evolution it deserves.

In WWII, colour blindness was a F4 exemption from Service, worse than flat foot,..........

Until they realized that colour blindness, neutralized camoflage.

Hans Persson said...

I wish there was an "Like" button here... Jay is way more clever than he thinks :P

Anonymous said...

I definitely knew about the color blindness as a camouflage finder, my old boss couldn't pick out reds to save his life but he was still drafted to Vietnam, lucky for him he ended up in Germany. As for the million year evolution of the eyeball, I would say the advent of the smart phone is leveling the field faster than anyone could imagine.