Russia Has Been Camouflaging Some of Its Fighters and Bombers With Tires for Months. A U.S. Military Officer Believes She Knows Why

The tires don’t offer protection against munitions but are used to confuse detection systems.

September 18, 2024, 09:03 ET

Javier Márquez

Ever since satellites were developed, keeping certain information confidential has become increasingly difficult. Some local governments use these devices to identify private swimming pools, for instance, in order to adjust tax payments. Additionally, satellites play a crucial role in national defense. Countries periodically launch new spy satellites to collect intelligence from space. As you can imagine, this information is highly sensitive.

What’s more, many images taken from space are publicly accessible. Thanks to these resources, some enthusiasts uncovered China’s construction of the world’s largest amphibious carrier. Most recently, satellite images have helped the U.S. army detect Russian jets covered in tires, which raises the question of the purpose of these unusual modifications on Russian aircraft.

The End of a Mysterious Sight

Russia hasn’t provided any details about the practice, but a high-level U.S. military officer has given the most reasonable explanation. In an interview with the Center for Strategic & International Studies, Schuyler Moore, chief technology officer at U.S. Central Command, explained that the tires are meant to protect aircraft from enemies but not directly from munitions.

According to Moore, “If you’re looking for a plane and then put tires on top of the wings, all of a sudden, a lot of computer vision models have difficulty identifying that that’s a plane.” She adds that this is where the AI models used in military systems come into play. Upgrading these models isn’t a simple task and requires retraining them with updated data to improve detection.

The images of Russian tire-covered aircraft could be used to improve detection models. However, the issue arises when the detection model is active, given that the enemy could simply choose another element to confuse the system. This calls for more advanced AI systems capable of adapting to these changes.