Recently, information has emerged about the Russian military’s attempt to employ new tactics in their assault groups, as demonstrated in an attack on a position of one of the Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades, with photos published online.
During an assault, one Russian group engaged in a frontal attack on Ukrainian forces, which turned out to be a diversionary maneuver. Meanwhile, another group attempted a flanking move, crawling under cover, shielded by what seemed like anti-drone “cocoons” or “covers,” as reported by Defense Express. A key issue was that the Russians were invisible to thermal imaging under the covers. This particular attack format was chosen when the weather limited the Ukrainian military’s use of drones, so they had to rely only on thermal imaging cameras.
The first knowledge of Russians using thermal camouflage to evade thermal imaging came to light in April 2023. Russian military bloggers actively discussed this development, but there had not been active use of such gear in combat by the enemy until recently.
In October 2023, it was reported that Ukraine began manufacturing thermal camouflage to counter thermal imaging.
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