Operation False Target: How Russia plotted to mix a deadly new weapon among decoy drones in Ukraine At a secretive factory in Russia’s central grasslands, engineers are manufacturing hundreds of decoy drones meant to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses as they try to protect against a horrific new weapon, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Russian forces have started deploying deadly thermobaric drones alongside numerous decoy UAVs, which are not armed with explosives, in their large-scale drone attacks against Ukraine. Source: Associated Press (AP) Details: A factory in Russia's Alabuga special economic zone recently began producing thermobaric drones along with decoys,

Warheads create high-pressure vortex that penetrates walls; sucking out all oxygen in their path, they can cause collapsed lungs, crushed eyeballs, brain damage even outside blast site

Engineers are creating decoys which will be used to mask attacks using devastating thermobaric warheads, journalists found.

Russia is using decoy drones to confuse Ukrainian defenses, while also introducing thermobaric drones that pose severe risks. The Alabuga plant in Russia is key to drone production. These tactics are saving costs for Russia and creating uncertainty in Ukrainian airspace,

Over the course of October 2024, Russia launched more than 2,000 drones against Ukraine, with Ukrainian intelligence estimating that about half of these drones were decoys or fake targets that Russia used to distract and overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.

The idea was to launch armed drones along with dozens of decoys, sometimes stuffed with rags or foam, and indistinguishable on radar from those carrying real bombs.

A high-tech factory in central Russia has created a new, deadly force to attack Ukraine: A small number of highly destructive thermobaric drones surrounded by huge swarms of cheap foam decoys

Russian air defence units intercepted a series of Ukrainian drones in several Russian regions, officials said, many of them in Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops launched a major incursion in August.