A Czech company has unveiled an inflatable decoy of the F-16 fighter, notably wearing Ukrainian Air Force markings. The inflatable fighter, from a firm that is already known to be providing Kyiv with decoys of other items of military equipment, appears only a matter of weeks after it was confirmed that the first real F-16s had arrived in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian-marked F-16 decoy from the Czech Inflatech company is currently on show at the Industry Days defense exhibition in Denmark, organized by the Danish Ministry of Defense Acquisition and Logistics Organization (DALO).
The full-scale inflatable replica of the gray-painted F-16 includes a transparent ‘cockpit canopy,’ wingtip stores, and a centerline ‘fuel tank.’
It’s unclear if the F-16 decoys will be heading to Ukraine, or whether the Ukrainian Air Force insignia has been applied to drum up interest in the product.
However, there have been unconfirmed reports of U.S.-supplied F-16 decoys having been procured for Ukraine as well as accounts of decoys of the same aircraft being built in Ukrainian workshops, too.
Overall, the war in Ukraine is seeing a considerable spike in demand for decoys, with inflatable types being just one solution.
Inflatech is very much a specialist in this area, with a website that now lists more than 30 different inflatable military decoys. Among the various tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery pieces are other aircraft types, including the Russian-made Su-27 and Su-30 Flanker and the U.S.-made UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. As of March 2023, the company claimed that business was up by more than 30 percent compared with the previous, with the expectation that growth would continue rising in double figures for at least another three to five years.
It’s clear is Ukraine’s need to protect its F-16s at all costs, an issue we have explored in the past.
At this stage, the first F-16s are in Ukraine, but only in small numbers, reportedly only with six Ukrainian pilots qualified to fly them, and these are likely proficient only in a limited number of missions.
Already, however, Moscow has put a bounty on the Ukrainian F-16s, and this will only reinforce the necessity of protecting the jets. At the most basic level, this will almost certainly involve rotating the jets around different bases within Ukraine, including operating from temporary airstrips, where possible.
It’s almost inevitable, however, that even with these measures in place, Russia will target them on the ground.
Source: The War Zone