The Persistent Effectiveness of Decoys in Land Forces’ Operations – Lessons From The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict –

The ongoing war in Ukraine has changed the nature of armed conflict. Among other things, it has demonstrated that today’s unprecedented technological developments have led to much greater risks to the protection of forces on the battlefield. The extensive use of unmanned aerial systems, both for fire control and especially for battle space reconnaissance, has made the battle environment extremely transparent. As a result, armed forces have had to find effective ways of protecting their own forces and operations. One of these measures has proven to be the use of decoys to mislead enemy forces and attack systems. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive picture of the operational necessity of such methods and to offer recommendations based on the lessons learned in Ukraine, where both belligerents have made extensive use of such methods. I anticipate that these findings will contribute significantly to a deeper understanding of the implications of false targets in contemporary military operations.