Russians draw outlines of submarines in the port of Novorossiysk

21 March, 2024 Varshavyanka Kilo-class submarine, as well as a drawing of its silhouette in the port of Novorossiysk, February 25, 2024. Photo credits: Ministry of Defense of Great Britain UK intelligence releases satellite images of a Russian submarine and a painted "decoy" in the port of Novorossiysk.

The UK Ministry of Defence released the image. The British intelligence agency published a satellite image dated February 25, showing the silhouette of a submarine painted on a pier in the port of Novorossiysk. The Department suggests that the purpose of such measures is a dubious attempt to mislead Ukrainian drone operators and enemy satellites.

This practice has long been known in the Russian military and has migrated to the navy from the Russian Aerospace Forces, which have been long painting silhouettes of fighter jets and strategic bombers on their runways. Due to the high resolution of optical reconnaissance satellites, these methods are considered ineffective.

In addition, they do not work against radar surveillance satellites.

Tu-95MS strategic bombers and "decoys" at Engels Air Base. Photo credits: Planet Labs

Camouflaging ships

The British intelligence report also emphasizes that the Russian navy has begun to pay considerable attention to camouflage due to its numerous losses in the Black Sea. In particular, last May, the Black Sea Fleet started applying camouflage to the ships, which was supposed to break up the silhouette and reduce the visibility of the vessel at sea.

This camouflage was applied to the unknown Projects 775 and 11711 landing ships, frigates of Project 11356R Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov, two Project 21631 corvettes, and 2 Project 22160 patrol ships.

A picture of the camouflaged Frigate Admiral Essen.

Source: Naval News

Experts from Naval News suggested that this camouflage pattern aims to confuse drone operators so that they take it for a less valuable target.

However, given that a thermal camera is used to identify and point at the target, which clearly distinguishes the entire silhouette of the ship, such camouflage is ineffective.