Decoys:

There is no disputing that the allies' high-tech weapons chest is loaded with razzle-dazzle. But just what were those fancy guidance systems locking onto and those clever bombs blowing to smithereens? In some cases, it seems, nothing more than a cardboard shell gussied up to look like an Iraqi Scud launcher.

General Colin Powell complimented the Iraqis last week for their skills of deception. "They're quite good at it," he said. In addition to the ersatz launchers, Iraq has employed mock tanks, airplanes, bunkers and artillery. The preferred materials: plywood, aluminum and fiber glass. Among the Iraqis' possible suppliers was a French company, Lancelin-Barracuda, and an Italian competitor, M.V.M. A U.S. Defense Department official says Baghdad is even hiding missiles in "portable mosques sized to the task of concealment." In addition to deploying decoys, the Iraqis are painting craters onto repaired airfields so allied bombers won't retarget them. They may also be fixing up decimated installations to make them look only partly destroyed so their enemies will return to waste bombs on useless structures.

Dupery is a war trick at least as old as the legend of the Trojan horse. In World War II, the U.S. created an entire dummy army unit in southern Britain to convince the Germans that the Normandy invasion would be directed toward the Pas-de-Calais, and it worked. The Soviets are the masters of military wile, although they do foul up at times. In the early 1970s, the U.S. spotted a Soviet "submarine" bent by a storm, a giveaway that the vessel was a fake.

Counterfeit armaments can easily fool pilots zipping overhead who may not have time to analyze infrared images of their targets, which reveal the wooden husks below for what they are. Except, that is, when the decoys include heaters to simulate the infrared signature of, say, a tank engine, and perhaps crude transmitters to produce radar signals. A deluxe imitation tank from M.V.M. runs about $23,000, a lot cheaper than the real thing, which can cost $1 million or more.