Exclusive: Russia develops kamikaze drones with Chinese engines

Using Chinese engines and parts, Russia began manufacturing a new long-range attack drone last year called the Garpiya-A1, which it has used in the conflict in Ukraine, according to two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents seen by Reuters.

According to the intelligence, which included financial records, company correspondence regarding the manufacturing process, and a production contract for the new drone, IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of the state-owned Russian weapons manufacturer Almaz-Antey, produced over 2,500 Garpiyas between July 2023 and July 2024.

It hasn’t been previously revealed that China is being used in the new Russian drone. Requests for comments were not answered by IEMZ Kupol or Almaz-Antey.

According to the two intelligence sources, the Garpiya, or Harpy in Russian, has been used against both military and civilian targets in Ukraine, resulting in both military and civilian losses as well as damage to vital infrastructure.

Without giving any more information, they shared with Reuters what they claimed to be photos of a Garpiya’s wreckage taken in Ukraine. Although Reuters was unable to independently verify the photographs, it was able to find information that supports this judgment.

Because the material is sensitive, the sources requested that neither they nor their organization be named. Additionally, they requested that specific information about the documents—like dates—be kept secret.

In an interview with Reuters, Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington, DC, stated that, should Garpiya be verified, Russia would no longer be dependent 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 stated.

In May of last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that from the beginning of the invasion in February 2022, Russia has received over a thousand Shahed “kamikaze” drones from Iran, which remained silent for this narrative.

They have been employed to target infrastructure located distant from the battle lines and deplete Ukraine’s air defenses. Iran has consistently denied supplying Russia with drones to be used in Ukraine.

A request for comment for this story was not answered by Russia’s Ministry of Defense. Beijing rigorously regulates the export of goods with possible military uses, such as drones, the Chinese foreign ministry told Reuters in a statement.

“With regard to the Ukrainian crisis, China has always been committed to promoting peace talks and political settlement,” stated the statement. It also stated that China’s trade with Russia was unrestricted internationally.

NATO RELATION

Last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Beijing to end its backing of Russia’s war in Ukraine, stating that Beijing’s actions had played a major role in the conflict’s prolongation.

As per the European agency’s statement to Reuters, the Garpiya “closely resembles the Shahed” but has certain distinctive elements including a bolt-on fin and Limbach L-550 E engines. Originally created and built by a German business, the engine is currently made in China by a local company called Xiamen Limbach. A request for comment was not answered by the corporation.

A deal worth over one billion rubles (10 million euros) was reviewed by Reuters, which was signed in the first quarter of 2023 between Kupol and the Russian Defense Ministry for the establishment of a plant to make drones.

The drones are being made at a former cement factory in Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic, western Russia, which Kupol bought in 2020, according to the intelligence sources.

By analyzing the color and pattern of the building’s beams and internal architecture, which matched file photos of the site, Reuters was able to identify the location as the plant in Izhevsk using a video of a Russian drone production facility that was released on the messaging app Telegram. By comparing street views and satellite imagery with the locations of neighboring buildings, roads, and trees, it was possible to confirm the file imagery’s position.

According to business communications, a prototype of the Garpiya was introduced in the first half of 2023. According to the agency, production more than doubled to approximately 2,000 in the first half of 2024 from several hundred in the second half of 2023.

According to defense researcher Bendett, Russia would produce a significant portion of its 2,500 drones annually. Since its invasion in February 2022, Russia has shot approximately 14,000 strike drones, including the Iranian Shahed and the Russian-built Geran-2 and Lancet drones, according to statements made last month by Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top military commander.

Corporate documents from the second quarter of 2023, which Reuters reviewed, revealed that the supplier TSK Vektor ordered 800 Chinese engines to be delivered to the new plant, where the production line was scheduled to be ready by the end of the quarter. The Chinese companies’ parts were purchased by the supplier for assembly at the Kupol site.

A request for response from TSK Vektor was not answered.

In a statement, the European spy agency expressed alarm about Chinese companies’ continued provision of parts that allowed Russia to produce big kamikaze drones. “The export of the essential components to Russia needs to stop,” it stated.

United States Concerned Parties

Beijing has received numerous warnings from Washington on its backing of Russia’s defense sector. It has put hundreds of sanctions in place to limit Moscow’s capacity to use certain technology for military gain. A request for comment for this story was not answered by the White House or the State Department.

China announced in July that it would tighten export regulations beginning on September 1. U.S. sanctions against Chinese firms related to the conflict in Ukraine, according to Beijing, are “illegal and unilateral”.

According to the production contract between Kupol and the Russian military ministry, the Garpiya has a take-off weight of less than 300 kg and a maximum range of 1,500 km. It is comparable to Iran’s Shahed-136 drones, which Moscow has widely employed in Ukraine.

In August, The Washington Post revealed that Russia planned to boost manufacturing at a plant in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, Tatarstan, of a domestic variant of the Shahed-136, dubbed the Geran-2. In April, Ukraine declared that it had attacked an Alabuga drone production facility with a drone strike.

A delivery status update between the manufacturer Kupol and the intermediary TSK Vektor, dated in the first quarter of 2024, was the subject of a third document that Reuters reviewed. It described an order for 100 axles, carburetors, and other Limbach engine parts from two other Shenzhen-based Chinese companies, Juhang Aviation Technology and Redlepus Vector Industries.

Juhang and Redlepus did not reply to demands for comment. Juhang was subject to British penalties in February and U.S. sanctions in May for supplying Russia with drone equipment.

From April 2022 to December 2023, TSK Vektor imported $36.3 million worth of goods from Chinese Juhang Aviation Technology and $6.2 million from Redlepus TSK Vector Industrial Shenzhen Co Ltd, according to customs data that was received from a commercial supplier that records and compiles the information.

The commodities included airplane engines, transistors, electronic modules, connectors, plugs, and sockets, as well as spare parts and components, the majority of which were labeled “for general civil purpose,” “for general industrial purpose,” or “for general civil use,” according to the customs records.