Ukrainian soldier with Stinger missile
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According to Insider , a Ukrainian soldier recently said that Russia has begun to deploy a new tactic by equipping decoy flares on missiles, making it difficult for Ukraine's air defense system to cope.
The soldier, nicknamed Roman, said using his Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles became more complicated.
"The Russians are now launching missiles that emit decoy flares, like flares on airplanes. This has never happened before and causes problems for the Stinger," the soldier said.
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Stinger missiles use infrared to identify targets, while decoy flares work by tricking tracking systems into aiming at the heat source from the flare instead of the target.
A video surfaced in late December 2023 showing a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile using decoy flares during an attack. Roman said Russia had only recently started using this tactic, and that Ukrainian soldiers had first heard about it about a month ago.
The soldier was part of an air defense unit that helped defend the Ukrainian capital Kyiv from a massive air strike on January 2. That's when Roman discovered Russia's new tactic.
He said his team shot down two Russian cruise missiles during that attack using a US-supplied mobile system and a ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun. However, he admitted that intercepting the missiles was difficult.
Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Sergiy Naev said that Ukraine's mobile air defense groups "have enough ammunition to withstand several more powerful attacks".
According to him, Ukraine's priority is to have more ammunition because the Russian side "really wants to weaken our air defense system".
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