“Whoever outsmarts wins”
Ukraine wants to start f-16 fight jet fake maneuvers
Darning and deception are two important factors in the war. A Ukrainian organization takes the latter to the extreme by building dummies of F-16 jets. The fighter planes have been the focus of the Russian side since they were delivered to Kiev's military.
Photos of dummies from Ukrainian F-16 jets have appeared on social networks. According to the information there, they come from the organization Apate, which has been known for its deceptively real replicas of tanks, artillery and other war equipment for a long time.
On one of the pictures you can see how two men load a large, gray aircraft side rudder with the Ukrainian trident symbol. There is something that looks like an aircraft fuselage, protected with camouflage nets on a red trailer:
On the APATE channel itself, however, you can only find a very unrecognizable picture on which a group of men stands in front of the supporter. The other photos had probably caused excitement. The organization writes on Telegram that many Russians and some Ukrainians were outraged by the pictures in a “previous post”. The photos may have been deleted.
Apate sees a clarification and appeased that publications from the buildings would always be coordinated with the Ukrainian military beforehand. In the pictures, the armed forces probably saw no help for the Russian side. Already in July the organization had shared a photo of a large, replica F-16 aircraft fuselage, which is still online today.
Apate would like to continue to show pictures of dummies approved by the military in the future and at the same time asks for donations. According to its own information, the organization is financed by “normal people” funds and does not receive financial support from the state.
“Art of deception”
“War is the art of deception: who outsmarts wins! We produce models from equipment and weapons,” says Apate. According to the Proukrains blog Militaryland, the Ukrainian armed forces actively use the products on the front.
Ukraine had received the first F-16 jets from the west last summer, and further delivery from the Netherlands was recently delivered. A total of around 80 pieces are to be delivered and decisively help to ensure the airspace.
The fighter planes are a sensitive topic, because the Russian side is using a lot to destroy the jets produced in the hated USA. They represent something like a trophy. Ukrainian security authorities had several times the arrest of alleged spies, which are said to have tried to find the locations of the F-16 jets.
