Previously, in July, reports indicated that the Russians were celebrating the destruction of two US-provided HIMARS. 

New information recently released may provide reasoning as to why the Russians believed they had, in fact, destroyed two US-provided HIMARS. It has been revealed that “fake High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) [were] set up by the Ukrainian military.” [i]

According to recent reports, “Ukraine has deployed a fleet of dummy HIMARS across the battlefield to trick Russian forces into wasting expensive long-range weapons on pointless targets.” This information surfaces after many claims by Russia to have destroyed the HIMARS previously provided to Ukraine by foreign nations. Although the claims were quickly ‘debunked,’ now learning of the Ukrainian’s decoy HIMARS, the Russians may have witnessed their missiles hit HIMARS, just wooden ones instead of the real armaments. [ii]

According to the Washington Post, the wooden decoys are “indistinguishable from the real thing to UAVs, who transmit their locations to naval cruise missile carriers in the Black Sea.” Russia has made use of drones to discover armament locations. [iii]

It is alleged that once the decoys had been in the field for several weeks, they “drew at least 10 Kalibr cruise missiles.” The same source continues by stating,

The destroyed decoys may partially account for Russia’s inflated statistics of destroyed HIMARS.” [iv]

Russian forces understandably want to take out the HIMARS with its 50-mile firing range, a potential key motivator in why Russia is intent on destroying them. The HIMARS has been used to destroy ammunition depots, supply lines, bridges, and logistical hubs. Russia’s desire to take out the HIMARS is supported by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordering that the destruction of long-range artillery systems be a priority. [v]

Now that it has been revealed that some of the HIMARS are fabricated decoys, what will that mean for Ukraine’s tactic of using baits? Will it continue to remain useful?

References

[i] Joe Barnes, How dummy Himars are depleting Russia’s missile supplies, (Aug. 30, 2022)

[ii] Id.

[iii] Euro Maiden Press, Ukraine uses HIMARS-look-alike wooden decoys to lure Russia into wasting long-range missiles, (Aug. 30, 2022)

[iv] Id.

[v] John Hudson, Ukraine lures Russian missiles with decoys of US rocket system, (Aug. 30, 2022)