Russia establishes drone factory in China
26/9/2024 6:12
Russia has established a weapons
programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack
drones for use in the war against Ukraine, according to two
sources from a European intelligence agency and documents
reviewed by Reuters.
IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company
Almaz-Antey, has developed and flight-tested a new drone model
called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local
specialists, according to one of the documents, a report that
Kupol sent to the Russian defence ministry earlier this year
outlining its work.
Kupol told the defence ministry in a subsequent update that
it was able to produce drones including the G3 at scale at a
factory in China so the weapons could be deployed in the
"special military operation" in Ukraine, the term Moscow uses
for the war.
Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian defence ministry did not
respond to requests for comment for this article. China's
foreign ministry told Reuters it was not aware of such a
project, adding that Beijing had strict control measures on the
export of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International
Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based defence
think-tank, said the delivery of UAVs from China to Russia, if
confirmed, would be a significant development.
"If you look at what China is known to have delivered so
far, it was mostly dual-use goods - it was components,
sub-components, that could be used in weapon systems," he told
Reuters. "This is what has been reported so far. But what we
haven't really seen, at least in the open source, are documented
transfers of whole weapon systems."
Still, Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the
Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think
tank, said Beijing would be hesitant to open itself up to
international sanctions for helping Moscow's war machine. He
said more information was needed to establish that China was
playing host to production of Russian military drones.
The White House National Security Council said it was deeply
concerned by the Reuters report of the drones programme, which
it said appeared to be an instance of a Chinese company
providing lethal assistance to a U.S.-sanctioned Russian firm.
The White House has not seen anything to suggest the Chinese
government was aware of the transactions involved, but China has
a responsibility to ensure companies aren't providing lethal aid
to Russia for use by its military, a spokesperson added.
Asked about the Reuters report, a NATO spokesperson said via
email: "These reports are deeply concerning and Allies are
consulting on this matter."
"The Chinese government has a responsibility to ensure its
companies are not providing lethal assistance to Russia," added
the spokesperson, Farah Dakhlallah. "China cannot continue to
fuel the largest conflict in Europe since the Second World War
without this impacting its interests and reputation."
Britain's Foreign Office called on China to stop providing
diplomatic and material support to Russia's war effort.
"We are extremely concerned by reports that Russia is
producing military drones in China," a spokesperson said.
"This adds to a growing body of open-source evidence that
Chinese companies are enabling Russia’s illegal invasion of
Ukraine. The supply of weapons would be a direct contradiction
to statements from China that it would not provide weapons to
relevant parties of the conflict."
The G3 can travel about 2,000 km (1,200 miles) with a
payload of 50 kg (110 pounds), according to the reports to the
Russian defence ministry from Kupol, which was placed under U.S.
sanctions in December 2023. Samples of the G3 and some other
drone models made in China have been delivered to Kupol in
Russia for further testing, again with the involvement of
Chinese experts, they said.
The documents do not identify the Chinese drone specialists
involved in the project that it outlined, and Reuters was unable
to determine their identity.
Kupol has taken delivery of seven military drones made in
China, including two G3s, at its headquarters in the Russian
city of Izhevsk, according to the two separate documents
reviewed by Reuters, which are invoices sent to Kupol in the
summer by a Russian firm that the two European intelligence
sources said serves as an intermediary with Chinese suppliers.
The invoices, one of which requests payment in Chinese yuan, do
not specify delivery dates or identify the suppliers in China.
The two intelligence sources said the delivery of the sample
drones to Kupol was the first concrete evidence their agency had
found of whole UAVs manufactured in China being delivered to
Russia since the Ukraine war began in February 2022.
They asked that neither they nor their organisation be
identified due to the sensitivity of the information. They also
requested certain details related to the documents be withheld,
including their precise dates.
'DOUBLE STANDARDS ON ARMS SALES'
The sources showed Reuters five documents in all, including
two Kupol reports to the ministry in the first half of the year
and the two invoices, to support their claims of the existence
of a Russian project in China to manufacture drones for use in
Ukraine. The programme has not previously been reported.
Kupol's reports did not give more precise locations for
sites related to the project. Reuters was also unable to
determine whether the defence ministry gave the company the
green light to proceed with the serial production proposed.
Beijing has repeatedly denied that China or Chinese
companies have supplied Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine,
saying the country remains neutral.
In response to questions for this article, the foreign
ministry told Reuters that China's position presented a contrast
with other nations with "double standards on arms sales" whom it
said had "added fuel to the flames of the Ukrainian crisis".
The ministry said earlier this month that there were no
international restrictions on China's trade with Russia, when
responding to a Reuters report that Kupol had started to produce
the Garpiya-A1 long-range military drone in Russia using Chinese
engines and parts.
The new documents reported here indicate state-owned Kupol
has gone further by sourcing complete UAVs from China.
Both Russia and Ukraine are racing to ramp up their
production of drones, which have emerged as highly effective
weapons in the war.
David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector who heads
the Institute for Science and International Security research
group, and has conducted extensive work on Chinese and Russian
cooperation on drone production, told Reuters that Kupol could
skirt Western sanctions on Russia by setting up a production
facility in China where it could access advanced chips and
expertise.
But Bendett at the Center for a New American Security said
Beijing had reason to tread carefully: "For a factory to exist
officially that builds UAVs for the Russians exposes China to
some of the more severe effects of the sanctions, so it's not
clear the extent to which China would be willing to expose
itself."
The Ukrainian government did not respond to a request for
comment for this article.
COMPARABLE TO US REAPER DRONE?
The G3 is an upgraded version of the Garpiya-A1 drone,
according to Kupol's reports sent to the defence ministry. It
was redesigned by Chinese experts working off blueprints of the
Garpiya-A1, they said.
Kupol said that within eight months, the project in China
would be ready to produce a Chinese-designed REM 1 attack UAV
with a payload of 400 kg. The two European intelligence sources
said this system would be similar to the U.S. Reaper drone.
The sources said another Russian defence firm called TSK
Vektor acted as the intermediary between Kupol and Chinese
suppliers in the project. They said the Russian firms worked
with a Chinese company called Redlepus TSK Vector Industrial,
based in Shenzhen, without specifying Redlepus' role.
TSK Vektor and Redlepus did not respond to requests for
comment.
A separate document reviewed by Reuters reveals plans
involving Kupol, TSK Vektor and Redlepus to establish a joint
Russian-Chinese drone research and production centre in the
Kashgar special economic zone in China's Xinjiang province.
Reuters was unable to determine who produced the document,
which bore the logos of the three companies, or identify the
intended recipient.
The 80-hectare "Advanced UAV Research and Manufacturing
Base" would be able to produce 800 drones a year, the document
said. No timeline was given for when it would be operational.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his
military had received around 140,000 drones in 2023 and that
Moscow planned to increase this number tenfold this year.
"Whoever reacts faster to demands on the battlefield wins,"
he told a meeting in St Petersburg about drone production.
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