Trump campaign uses stock pictures of RUSSIAN fighter jets and AK-74 assault rifles in campaign advert to 'Support Our Troops'

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An advert to 'support the troops' paid for by Donald Trump's campaign used pictures of Russian fighter jets in the background, it has emerged.

The advert, which ran from September 8 to 12, was made by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee.

It features five soldiers, some carrying Russian AK-74 assault rifles, walking as the Russian MiG-29 jets fly over the top of them. 

Pierre Sprey, who helped design the F-16 and A-10 planes for the US Air Force told Politico: 'That's definitely a MiG-29.

An advert to 'support the troops' (left) paid for by Donald Trump's (right, pictured yesterday) campaign has used pictures of Russian fighter jets in the background

'I'm glad to see it's supporting our troops.' 

Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, also confirmed the presence of MiG-29s and AK-74s in the image.

The AK-74 the updated, automatic, version of the famous AK-47 rifle and is the standard rifle for Russian and other former Soviet militaries.

The MiG-29 is the Russians’ mainstay fighter jet and it was developed during the Cold War specifically to counter American F-15 and F-16s. 

Sprey pointed to distinctive features of the pictured jets which match the MiG - including the angle of the aircraft’s tail and the spacing of the engines 

The image used in the advert comes from a stock photo on Shutterstock titled 'military silhouettes of soldiers and airforce against the backdrop of sunset sky'.

The image used in the ad comes from a stock photo on Shutterstock entitled 'Military silhouettes of soldiers and airforce against the backdrop of sunset sky'

The advert, which ran from September 8 to 12, was made by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee. Pictured: Donald Trump salutes a Marine Corps honor guard as he disembarks Marine One at the White House yesterday

Politico said the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment, and the RNC declined to comment.

The campaign gaffe comes amid claims Russia is interfering with the American Presidential election by undermining Democrat candidate Joe Biden.

Russian state-backed hackers have been targeting a firm linked to Joe Biden's presidential campaign for the last two months, it emerged last week. 

The hackers targeted staff at campaign strategy firm SKDKnickerbocker - which is working with Biden and other leading Democrats - but failed to gain access to the company's networks, sources said.   

Microsoft Corp recently alerted one of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's main election campaign advisory firms that it had been targeted by suspected Russian state-backed hackers, according to three people briefed on the matter

'They are well-defended, so there has been no breach,' a source said after Microsoft alerted SKDK to the hacking attempt.  

US intelligence services have raised alarms about Russian hacking efforts ahead of November's election, after Robert Mueller's inquiry and the Senate Intelligence Committee both found evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 race.

SKDK managing director Anita Dunn was a White House communications director during the Barack Obama presidency and serves the Biden campaign as a senior advisor.

The attempts to infiltrate SKDK were recently flagged to the campaign firm by Microsoft, which identified cybercriminals tied to the Russian government as the likely culprits.

Investigations by former special counsel Robert Mueller (pictured) found that Russian affiliates interfered in the 2016 election

The attacks included phishing, a hacking method which seeks to trick users into disclosing passwords, as well as other efforts to infiltrate SKDK's network.

The company has worked on six presidential campaigns for the Democrats as well as congressional campaigns and successful 2018 governor's races in Kansas and Connecticut.  

It recently criticized Trump for 'telling white Americans they should be afraid of Black and brown Americans' and claiming he 'holds no responsibility for everything happening in this country, even though it is happening under his watch'.

SKDK vice-chair Hilary Rosen declined to comment, while a Biden spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.