Russia: Inflatable Army

ITN: The Russian military has been blowing up its own tanks and planes - but it's all part of the plan.

Commanders are using inflatable dummy jets, tanks and rocket launchers to fool potential enemies.

Here in the countryside some 50 kilometres northeast of Moscow, a factory is supplying the ageing Russian military with tanks that won't fire.

Fake shows of strength using decoys are nothing new, but they used to made out of plywood, rubber or plastic.

A blow-up tank weighs just 35kg and can ben carried into position by hand by two soldiers.

Yuri Stephanov of manufacturers Rusbal said: "This is the way to save money. In case we have a conflict situation we don't need to engage in sabre-rattling and send our real military hardware to pretend we have exercises or troop movements. We can just put these dummies in place and they will be spotted by unmanned spy planes."