Inflatable tanks and HIMARS: how a Czech company makes millions on fake military equipment

On March 6, the Czech company Inflatech held a presentation of its products - inflatable models of military equipment. We decided to find out how these dummies help on the battlefield and how inflatable weapons can be a successful business.

Photo: IStock

Who are Inflatech

The company produces more than 30 types of inflatable military traps - from tanks and armored vehicles to aircraft and howitzers. Dev.ua.

The company produces up to 50 baits per month. The head of the company, Vojtech Fresser, said that his business increased by 30% in 2022 and is projected to show double-digit growth in the next 3-5 years.

Pseudo-techniques are used to deceive drones. You can deploy inflatable baits on the territory 50 times or more. The cost of the enemy to destroy such a dummy is 20 times the cost of this dummy. The price of such prototypes is from $10 to $000.

“If I don’t have binoculars, then looking from a distance of 150-200 meters, I won’t be able to determine whether this is a real weapon or a decoy,” Fresser said.

Dummy baits can be inflated in the field using an electric or gas blower. This system generates a thermal signal that can fool infrared sensors.

On the subject: Brickmania created LEGO-HIMARS with the Ukrainian military: the money from sales will be transferred to Kyiv

According to Forbes, Inflatech recently reported that it believes more than a third of the HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) units destroyed by Russian forces were in fact inflatable decoys manufactured by the company.

Inflatech does not confirm if Ukraine is among the buyers. But Fresser is very hopeful that their military prototypes will "find their way there."

An old tactic

Confusing the enemy is a longstanding combat tactic.

“If the enemy has, for example, intelligence information about ten tanks, but sees another 15 from a drone, then he will know that some are decoys. If the inflatable copies are of good quality, he won't know which ones. And this is a competitive advantage in the fight,” says Fresser, writes Proukrainu.

Each manufactured part must be checked. After assembling the model and stitching its individual parts, as Yaroslav Brzhechka, an employee of the company, said, the turn of tests begins.

“We check if there are any errors. We need to check the pressure and measure everything,” he explained.

Boom in the market of inflatable models

Russia's war against Ukraine triggered a "boom for the arms industry for both real weapons and replicas," writes Voice of America.

Inflatable baits are made of synthetic silk. One model of an inflatable tank can be carried by two to four soldiers (the weight of one “fake” HIMARS without a heat generator and compressor equipment is 43 kg), they can be inflated in 10 minutes.

In the past year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Inflatech has experienced a boom in its business, ramping up production to dozens of lures a month, Fresser said.

“The capacity is used almost 100% for the production and supply of military equipment,” he confirmed.

According to him, at the moment the company employs 20 people, and the company wants to expand the staff by another 20 people.

Russian trace

Voice of America journalists found out that about 50% of Inflatech shares are owned by persons with official residence in the capital of Russia.

According to Prague-based lawyer Bohdan Zubach, the public register of commercial corporations in the Czech Republic (Commercial Register of the Czech Republic) indicates that, in addition to Richard and Vojtech Fressers, Viktor Talanov and Andrey Parfenov, who live in Moscow, own shares in the authorized capital of Inflatech.

The journalists managed to get in touch with Viktor Talanov, and he unambiguously spoke about his attitude towards Russia.

“For me, Russia has definitely been the aggressor since 08.08.2008/XNUMX/XNUMX (Russia’s invasion of Georgia - Ed.). It is impossible to supply weapons to Russia for a number of reasons. But there is no desire to supply something there,” Viktor said.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

At the same time, from 2011 to 2019, Viktor worked for the Russian market. He was CEO of Adviser, held the position of CBDO in Algoritm SB, etc. The offices of the companies in which the Russian worked are located in Moscow.

According to lawyer Bogdan Zubach, according to the registry, Inflatech was registered in the Czech Republic on May 29, 2014, a month after the Russian troops invaded eastern Ukraine.

At the same time, according to the Czech co-owner of Inflatech, Vojtech Fresser, their company does not supply inflatable models of military equipment to Russia. Models of tanks and other equipment "although they are models, they are classified as military equipment."

Representatives of Ukraine reported that Russian troops, both in the occupied territories and in Belarus, also use models of military equipment, inflatable and wooden. However, they did not specify which companies supply them to the Russian army.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Is traveling to Mexico dangerous: where Americans should not go at all

Who should not study: 6 specialties whose owners earn the least

The most popular US national parks: which places in America you definitely need to see

Ten states with $1 million in retirement savings to last

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.