Russia produces new kamikaze drone with Chinese engine, say European intel sources
The intelligence – which included a production contract for the new drone, company correspondence on the manufacturing process and financial documents - indicated that IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned weapons maker Almaz-Antey, produced more than 2,500 Garpiyas from July 2023 to July 2024.
The existence of the new Russian drone incorporating Chinese technology has not been previously reported. IEMZ Kupol and Almaz-Antey did not respond to requests for comment.
The two intelligence sources said that the Garpiya, which means Harpy in Russian, has been deployed against military and civilian targets in Ukraine, causing damage to critical infrastructure as well as both civilian and military casualties.
They shared with Reuters what they said were images from Ukraine of the wreckage of a Garpiya, without providing further details. Reuters found information that reinforces this conclusion, but was unable to confirm the images independently.
The sources asked that neither they nor their agency be identified due to the sensitivity of the information. They also asked that certain details, such as dates, related to the documents be withheld.
Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington DC-based think tank, told Reuters that Garpiya, if confirmed, would mark a departure from Russia’s reliance on Iranian designs for long-range drones.
“If this is happening, it could indicate that Russia can now rely more on domestic development as well as, obviously, on China, since both sides in this war depend on many Chinese components for drone production,” he said.
Iran, which didn’t comment for this story, has supplied more than a thousand Shahed “kamikaze” drones to Russia since the start of the invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in May last year.
They have been used to exhaust Ukrainian air defenses and hit infrastructure far from the front lines. Iran has repeatedly denied sending drones to Russia for use in Ukraine.
- Russia’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
- The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement to Reuters that Beijing strictly controls the export of items with potential military applications, including drones.
NATO appeal
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg last week called on China to stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and said Beijing’s assistance has been a significant factor in the continuation of the conflict.
Reuters reviewed a contract worth more than 1 billion rubles (10 million euros) signed in the first quarter of 2023 between the Russian defense ministry and Kupol for the development of a factory to produce the drones.
The intelligence sources said a former cement factory situated in Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic, in western Russia – which was purchased by Kupol in 2020 - is being used to produce the drones.
- Using a video of a Russian drone production facility posted on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters was able to identify the site as the factory in Izhevsk from the color and design of the building’s beams and internal architecture which matched file imagery of the site.
- The location of the file imagery was verifiable from nearby buildings, roads, and trees that matched street views and satellite imagery.
- Bendett, the defense analyst, said 2,500 drones per year would represent a sizeable chunk of Russia’s output.
- Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said last month that Russia has fired nearly 14,000 strike drones since it invaded in February 2022, including the Iranian Shahed as well as the Russian-made Geran-2 and Lancet drones.
- TSK Vektor did not respond to request for comment.
“The export of the essential components to Russia needs to stop,” it said.United States voices concern
Washington has repeatedly warned Beijing over its support for Russia’s defense industry. It has imposed hundreds of sanctions aimed at curbing Moscow’s ability to exploit certain technologies for military purposes.
- The State Department and the White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
In July, China said it would tighten drone export rules starting on Sept. 1.
- Beijing has said US sanctions on Chinese entities over the Ukraine war are “illegal and unilateral.”
The Washington Post reported in August that Russia aimed to increase production of a domestic version of the Shahed-136, known as the Geran-2, at a plant in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, in Tatarstan. Ukraine said in April it had carried out a drone strike against a drone manufacturing plant at Alabuga.
A third document reviewed by Reuters - a delivery status update between the intermediary TSK Vektor and the manufacturer Kupol, dated in the first quarter of 2024 - detailed an order for 100 axles, carburettors and other Limbach engine parts supplied by two other Chinese companies: Juhang Aviation Technology and Redlepus Vector Industries, both based in Shenzhen.
Juhang, which was placed under British sanctions in February and US sanctions in May for providing Russia with drone equipment, and Redlepus did not respond to requests for comment.
Customs data, obtained from a commercial supplier that records and compiles the information, showed that from April 2022 to December 2023, TSK Vektor imported $36.3 million in goods from Chinese Juhang Aviation Technology, and $6.2 million from Redlepus TSK Vector Industrial Shenzhen Co Ltd.
According to the customs documents, the goods included aircraft engines, transistors, electronic modules, connectors, plugs and sockets, spare parts and components most of them marked as “for general civil purpose,” “for general industrial purpose,” “for general civil use.”
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Russia Reportedly Deploys New, Domestically Developed Drones With Chinese Engines
Unnamed European intelligence officials said the drone is designated Garpiya-A1, though details on the drone – including its type and deployments – remain extremely scarce.
by Kyiv Post | September 13, 2024, 4:14 pm
Unnamed European intelligence officials claimed that Russia has developed – and employed – a new drone called Garpiya-A1 using Chinese engines and parts against Ukraine.
...The unnamed officials shared the information – including alleged contracts, financial documents and company correspondence – with Reuters and requested that their agency not be named due to the sensitivity of the information.
- Reuters, citing the sources, said the Garpiya drones, named after the Harpy eagles in Russian, were produced by IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned weapons maker Almaz-Antey, with a total production number of more than 2,500 units between July 2023 and July 2024.
- The report said production began at a factory in the Russian city of Izhevsk last year, and it named two Shenzhen-based companies – Juhang Aviation Technology and Redlepus Vector Industries – for supplying parts such as aircraft engines, transistors, electronic modules, connectors, plugs and sockets to Russia.
US Pilot Examines Russian Warplanes
Kyiv Post, together with a US Air Force pilot, examines the strategic bombers that are the same models as those used by Russia to launch missile strikes on Ukraine.
The officials also reportedly provided Reuters with images from Ukraine of the wreckage, to which Reuters said it “found information that reinforces this conclusion, but was unable to confirm the images independently.”
There had been reports in 2023 that Russia sourced engines for its kamikaze drones from AliExpress, a Chinese eCommerce platform. However, the latest report – if proven – could mean established cooperation on the enterprise level between Chinese and Russian manufacturers in weapons production, further insinuating speculations that Beijing passively supports weapons developments in Russia through the private sector.
That said, Beijing told Reuters that it strictly controls the export of components with potential military applications and maintained its neutral stance on the war in Ukraine in response to a Reuters inquiry.
Ukraine has not previously mentioned or acknowledged the drone’s existence; Kyiv Post’s sources within Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) said the information is “being verified” upon inquiry.
The timing of the Reuters report coincided with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell’s earlier statement this week that Beijing has been aiding Moscow with military development and production in exchange for advanced technologies. However, it’s unclear if Campbell was referring to the Garpiya-A1 drones.
Bloomberg reported in July that Russian and Chinese companies were allegedly developing drones similar to the Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones together.
In April, the Financial Times (FT) also reported that China was allegedly working with Russia to “jointly produce drones inside Russia,” citing comments from senior US officials.
inese engine
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