Taiwanese Company Produces Drives for UMPK by Order of Russia

4 January, 2025 Russian FAB-1500-M54 bomb with UMPK module, January 12, 2014. The Taiwanese company TRC manufactures and modifies servo drives for controlling UMPK kits that turn unguided bombs into high-precision guided bombs by order of the Russian Federation. This is reported by the international intelligence community InformNapalm with reference to public activist Vadym Labas.

According to the public activist, at the beginning, Russia used unmodified servos manufactured by TRC in UMPK kits, which it purchased through a series of gasket companies. Such servos are used in the automotive industry and are not military goods. However, due to the heavy loads on the wings controlled by this servo, their shafts often broke.

And the engine could not cope with the load. So the Russians asked the manufacturer to make modifications to strengthen the servo.

Changes in the design of TRC servo drives at the request of Russian companies. Photo credits: Vadym Labas

It is stated that during the year 2024, the TRC plant, at the request of Russian companies, had made five changes to its product.

In particular, some components were made of high-strength alloys, and the engine was replaced with a more powerful one. Earlier, the InformNapalm community exposed the Kazakh company ARC Group for servicing Russian Su-30SMs in violation of sanctions, using French equipment from Thales and Safran. After the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia allegedly lost access to French military technology and maintenance services.

However, according to the documents obtained by the community, the Russian side found the necessary channel to circumvent sanctions in the form of the Kazakh company ARC Group.

Su-30SM at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, 2019. Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Even after 2022, the Kazakh company continued to provide services to the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, which maintains the Su-30SM. The company disguised its activities for French suppliers as an intermediary with Kazakhstan's aircraft repair plant No.

405. However, judging by the seized working correspondence and other data, ARC Group provided its services for the maintenance of French equipment in Russia at the Irkutsk Aviation Plant. In particular, in October 2022, Rosaviaspetscomplect fully funded the necessary training and certification of specialists of the Kazakh company in France at the Thales training center.

In particular, the training on maintenance of SMD 55S/66S and HUD at the organizational level of maintenance (OLM) was mentioned. In October 2024, at InformNapalm's request, Thales and Safran spoke about the measures they had taken to prevent the circumvention of sanctions. And Thales suspended all contracts with the Kazakh plant.

And they are considering filing a lawsuit to terminate the agreement and possibly claim damages.