Intel sources claim in Reuters report that Russia has a secret war drone program in China | Real Time Headlines

Russia has developed a weapons program in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in its war in Ukraine, according to two European intelligence sources and documents reviewed by Reuters.

One of the documents shows that IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, developed and flew a new drone called the Garpiya-3 in China with the help of local experts. The Russian Ministry of Defense, outlines its work.

Kupol told the Defense Department in a subsequent update that it was able to mass-produce drones, including the G3, at a factory in China so the weapons could be deployed in “special military operations” in Ukraine, a term used by Moscow to describe this war.

Kupol, Almas-Antey and the Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment for this article. China’s Foreign Ministry told Reuters it was unaware of such a project, adding that Beijing imposed strict controls on the export of drones.

Fabian Hintz, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based defense think tank, said China’s delivery of drones to Russia, if confirmed, would be a major development.

“If you look at China’s deliveries so far, they are mostly dual-use goods – components, sub-components that can be used in weapons systems,” he told Reuters. “That’s what has been reported so far. content. But we haven’t really seen, at least in open source, a documented transfer of the entire weapons system.”

Still, Beijing would be hesitant to accept international sanctions for aiding Moscow’s war machine, said Samuel Bentet, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank. He said more information was needed to confirm that China was producing Russian military drones.

The White House National Security Council said it was deeply concerned by a Reuters report on the drone program, saying the program appeared to be an example of a Chinese company providing lethal assistance to a Russian company sanctioned by the United States.

A spokesman added that the White House had found no indication that the Chinese government was aware of the transactions involved, but that China had a responsibility to ensure that companies did not provide Russia with lethal aid for use by its military.

Asked about the Reuters reports, a NATO spokesman said by email: “These reports are deeply concerning and Allies are consulting on the matter.”

“The Chinese government has a responsibility to ensure that its companies do not provide lethal assistance to Russia,” spokesman Farah Lalla added. “China cannot continue to fuel Europe’s largest conflict since World War II without affecting its interests and reputation.”

The British Foreign Office called on China to cease providing diplomatic and material support to Russia’s war effort.

“We are extremely concerned by reports of Russian production of military drones in China,” a spokesman said.

“This adds to the growing body of public evidence that Chinese companies are helping Russia illegally invade Ukraine. The arms supply would directly contradict China’s statement that it will not provide arms to parties involved in the conflict.”

The G3 has a payload of 50 kilograms (110 pounds) and can travel about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), according to a December 2023 report submitted to the Russian Defense Ministry by Kubol, who was under U.S. sanctions. The human-machine model has been delivered to Kupol, Russia, for further testing, which also involves the participation of Chinese experts.

The documents did not identify the Chinese drone experts involved in the program, and Reuters was unable to identify them.

According to two separate documents reviewed by Reuters, Kupol has taken delivery of seven Chinese-made military drones, including two G3s, at its headquarters in the Russian city of Izhevsk. , they act as middlemen for Chinese suppliers. One of the invoices requested payment in yuan but did not specify a delivery date or identify the supplier in China.

Two intelligence sources said the delivery of drone samples to Kupol was the first concrete evidence the agency had uncovered that entire Chinese-made drones had been delivered to Russia since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

They asked that they or their organization not be identified due to the sensitivity of the information. They also asked that certain details related to the documents, including their exact dates, be withheld.

The sources showed Reuters a total of five documents, including two Kupol reports and two invoices submitted to the ministry in the first half of this year, to support their claims about the existence of a Russian project in China to build drones for Ukraine. The plan has not previously been reported.

Kupol’s report did not give a more precise location of the site associated with the project. Reuters was unable to determine whether the Defense Department had given the company approval to continue mass production.

Beijing has repeatedly denied that China or Chinese companies supplied Ukraine’s weapons to Russia and said the country remains neutral.

In response to questions posed for this article, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters that China’s position was in sharp contrast to other countries that “exercise double standards on arms sales”, saying that these countries were “adding fuel to the crisis in Ukraine”.

Earlier this month, the ministry said in response to a Reuters report that Kupol had begun producing the Garpiya-A1 long-range military drone in Russia using Chinese engines and parts that China’s trade with Russia was not subject to international restrictions.

New documents reported here indicate that state-owned Kupol has purchased complete drones from China.

Russia and Ukraine are both racing to increase production of drones, which have become highly effective weapons in warfare.

David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and head of a research group at the Institute for Science and International Security who has conducted extensive research on Chinese and Russian cooperation in drone production, told Reuters , Kubol can circumvent Western sanctions on Russia by building production facilities in China where it can gain access to advanced chips and expertise.

But Bendit of the Center for a New American Security said Beijing had reason to be cautious: “The formal existence of a factory making drones for Russia would expose China to some of the more severe fallout from sanctions, so the impact is not yet clear.” The extent to which China is willing to expose itself.

The Ukrainian government did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

According to a report sent by Kupol to the Ministry of Defense, the G3 is an upgraded version of the Garpiya-A1 drone. They say it was redesigned by Chinese experts based on blueprints from the Garpiya-A1.

Kupol said that within eight months, China’s program will be ready to produce the Chinese-designed REM 1 attack drone with a payload of 400 kilograms. Two European intelligence sources said the system would be similar to the U.S. Reaper drone.

Another Russian defense company called TSK Vektor acted as an intermediary between Kupol and Chinese suppliers in the project, sources said. They said the Russian companies worked with a Chinese company called Redlepus TSK Vector Industrial, based in Shenzhen, but did not specify Redlepus’s role.

TSK Vektor and Redlepus did not respond to requests for comment.

Another document reviewed by Reuters revealed that Kupol, TSK Vektor and Redlepus plan to establish a joint Russian-Chinese drone research and production center in the Kashgar Special Economic Zone in China’s Xinjiang province.

Reuters was unable to determine who produced the document, which bears the logos of the three companies, or the intended recipient.

The document states that the “advanced drone research and manufacturing base” covering an area of ​​80 hectares will be able to produce 800 drones per year. No timetable was given for when it would become operational.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian military will receive about 140,000 drones in 2023, and Moscow plans to increase this number tenfold this year.

“Whoever responds faster to the needs on the battlefield wins,” he told a conference on drone production in St. Petersburg.