Solutions to win: Zakarpattia volunteers create combat gun mockup to deceive Russian forces

Model of the D-20 combat gun. Photo: Mykhailo Roman

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The model of the D-20 combat gun was developed by the volunteers of the "Movement to Support the Transcarpathian Military – the City of Vynohradiv."

"Suspilne Uzhhorod" reports this.

What is the problem?

The Russian military has significantly more weapons than Ukraine's armed forces. The Ukrainian defense forces are attempting to deplete the occupiers' stockpiles by locating enemy warehouses and using their own domestic and Western military equipment to destroy their weapons.

However, the war in Ukraine impeded the development of various tactics and means of warfare. One of these "know-hows" was the massive use of models of military equipment on the battlefield.

After all, due to the lack of proper weapons, Ukraine has to "lure" Russian drones and ammunition and fool the enemy.

Today, Ukraine's armed forces actively use mock-ups as "bait" for the invaders, and the more of them there are on the battlefield, the more the invaders will spend their missiles and attack UAVs on them.

What is the solution?

Volunteers in Zakarpattia [Transcarpathia – ed.] developed a model of the D-20 combat gun, which is actively used at the front. Photos available on the network became a model for creating a layout. In Ukraine, no one has yet produced a similar model.

The main task of the layout is:

• Saving the lives of Ukrainian soldiers,
• financial exhaustion of the Russian army.

How does it work?

The volunteers reported that they took the D-20 model as a basis since it is the most common gun and the one most often encountered at the front.

"The model of the D-20 gun is up to 14 meters long. It fully corresponds to the original down to the smallest details," says Mykhailo Roman, coordinator of the volunteer organization.

As Roman said, they worked on this layout for about two months.

^{Photo: Mykhailo Roman}

"Their cost is very cheap, and the efficiency of using Russian projectiles against our models is very high. If it is manufactured without having anything at hand, the cost is up to 20 thousand hryvnias," he emphasized.

As the volunteers noted, one fired Russian projectile costs more than $1,000.

"Usually, one projectile won't hit them. Instead, there will be multiple attempts. The main goal of this model is to drain Russia's financial resources so our military won't face the same projectiles," the volunteer noted.

Volunteers without engineering skills, regular carpenters, welders, entrepreneurs, and non-indifferent individuals have constructed the model. Within a week, it will be transported to the east, specifically to the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk fronts.

^{Photo: Mykhailo Roman}

"We called the model of the gun "Bosorkan." No one in Ukraine has made such a model yet. There are similar models, particularly those manufactured by factories, but they are entirely different.

The model's main task is to save service members' lives. Every missile, every projectile, every drone that Russia uses against an object made of metal and plywood is a reduction in its ability to use these munitions against the equipment and personnel of Ukraine's armed forces, as well as the ability to counterattack against already calculated Russian targets," Mykhailo stressed.

This is the second development of volunteers. The first is the "Stuhna" layout.

"Perhaps my biggest dream is to have the Lancet, a Russian drone costing more than $40,000, fly to attack our model. I want that Lancet to fly there," the volunteer added.

For reference:

It should be noted that the Ukrainian military uses models of the American Sentinel counter-battery radar stations to deceive the Russian invaders.

Moreover, in August of last year, Western media reported that Ukraine was forcing Russia to spend expensive high-precision missiles to destroy wooden "decoys" imitating HIMARS missile and artillery systems.

In the Czech Republic, for these purposes, rubber models of the M142 HIMARS and M270 MLRS missile systems are manufactured for Ukraine, which cost four times less than the same Javelin missile.