Pentagon explains why Russians protect aircraft and their designs with tires
Illustrative image (Russian media)
The Russians deliberately put tires on their planes, as well as their designs, to try to deceive machine vision. One way or another, this created difficulties for some neural network models, according to Schuyler Moore, technical director of the United States Central Command.
According to Moore, the Russians believed that the tires on the fuselage were meant to prevent machine vision from identifying the target. In particular, as a countermeasure, Russia also painted aircraft and then covered them with tires.
The agency adds that it is not so much a visual image as a thermal signature of the targets. As an example, Storm Shadow cruise missiles use a thermal imaging homing head that is supposed to align the image with a reference model of the target.
Defense Express, in turn, explains that if the neural network has never seen an image of an aircraft before, it may indeed miss it. However, targeted training will eventually allow it to recognize it.
"Ukrainian drones can accurately recognize aircraft covered by tires because Russian Tu-22M3s were hit by aerial bombardment at the same Olenya airbase. At the same time, absolutely all Tu-22M3s at this airbase are covered," adds Defense Express.
Background
Back in September 2023, it became known that the Russians at the Engels airfield were trying to protect their Tu-95 strategic bombers from drones using car tires.
Later, experts explained that with this know-how, the Russian occupiers are trying to reduce the thermal visibility of strategic aircraft, but the targets will continue to be visible under infrared cameras.
