Rescued Maskirovka video (in Russian)

[John Kettler]

Lest it be lost in the titanic Russian Army Under Equipped thread, I thought I'd give this most interesting vid its own home. Back during the Cold War, I used to be directly concerned with this sort of thing and even more exotic false radar targets and jamming. This is a great look at at least some of the Russian CC&D (Camouflage, Concealment & Deception) bag of tricks, and I'm impressed. The opening sequence is terrific, since I haven't seen a rubber tank since some of the WW II footage. I think an A-10 would have a terrible time distinguishing the fake tank from the real deal by eye alone and maybe IR, too, if, like the Swedish Barracuda decoys for tanks, SAMs, etc., these can be heated. Since I don't speak Russian, I'm certain I missed out on all kinds of stuff, including what was said in the all too brief piece on what the Russians did in Moscow to fool the Luftwaffe. but what I saw was quite compelling. It was clear the camo netting is not just vs optical detection and old style IR reflectance detection but against surveillance radar as well. Noticed Nakidka was conspicuous by its absence. Wish I could've heard what he was saying about the smoke. I thought the individual camo uniform stuff (including Ratnik) and how well you could hide troops was impressive. The woods are indeed full of them! That one hulking sniper in full attire including black balaclava was scary and the sniper outfits and weaponry were great to see. The hides were interesting, too, and certainly aren't something I've ever seen before. I think US Woodland got screwed in the NVG test, for that clearly wasn't new issue at all and looked heavily worn. This is important because there are special treatments which help against certain surveillance means. If so, I have every confidence they were minimally effective, if present at all. Hiding the train was pretty cool, as was the little igloo for the ambulance. Other than showing its toughness, I didn't understand the point of the trampoline segment. The burning demo was fascinating, since old style camo netting would've caught fire, and it would've spread. And I certainly never expected to go inside a camouflage netting factory and watch the seasonal strips be installed.

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited September 16, 2016 by John Kettler