Russian forces have now been spotted using decoy missile systems to reveal the location of Ukrainian anti-air defense systems. This footage was captured recently by a civilian.

The footage above shows a Russian decoy missile being fired into a heavily populated area. The weapon system likely had no munitions attached to it, however it was likely designed with a similar signature as popular Russian missile systems in order to trigger automated defense systems that the Ukrainians are using to defend their cities.

We saw a similar tactic to this used by the United States during the invasion of Iraq. Hundreds of decoy missiles were fired over cities like Baghdad, which triggered the Iraqi air defense systems. This triggering relayed the location of those systems to American forces, which were then able to use those coordinates to strike out at anti-air defense systems around Iraq.

This was one small part of how the United States was so efficiently able to establish air dominance in Iraq. The effectiveness of this system for the Russians however has still yet to be seen.