Military mock-ups

What is an inflatable military mock-up for?

An inflatable mock-up stands in for a real vehicle wherever the silhouette matters and combat capability does not. It weighs a fraction of the original, fits in one transport and goes up in under twenty minutes with two people – no low-loader, no oversize transport permits, no technical crew.

That opens uses a real vehicle cannot reach: a display in a city centre, a drive into an exhibition hall, a position on a stadium pitch.

Advertising and trade-show use

At trade shows, festivals and brand events a full-scale mock-up pulls photographs – and a photo with a tank travels through social media together with the brand that put it there. It works for military-themed game and film launches, for tactical and outdoor apparel campaigns, and at public events run by local authorities.

Military and training use

Inflatable vehicle mock-ups have a long military record. The best-known case is the Allied Operation Fortitude before the Normandy landings, where inflatable tanks and aircraft built a picture of forces concentrated somewhere other than the real staging area.

Today such mock-ups serve deception, observer and reconnaissance training, target practice and camouflage exercises. ARIO supplies a VISUAL mock-up – it reproduces the silhouette and paint scheme, not the thermal or radar signature that purpose-built military decoys carry.

Museums, re-enactment and film sets

Beyond advertising and defence, mock-ups appear in museum and educational displays, at military shows and base open days, in recruitment campaigns, at historical re-enactments and on film sets and photo shoots, where bringing in a real vehicle would be uneconomic or impossible.

What does it cost and how long does it take?

The 10 m inflatable tank costs Price on request. Production takes 10 working days and happens in Poland. Other vehicles are quoted individually from a drawing or photographs.