More than a thousand foreign components were discovered in Russian weapons

4 July, 2023 Microcircuit of the American company Xilinx in the Russian R-168-5UT-2 radio captured in Ukraine. April 2022. Photo credits: Militarnyi

Russia has organized the purchase and supply of foreign components for its military industry. This, in particular, includes electronics produced by large Western companies. They supply these components through third countries.

This is stated in the report of the Yermak-McFaul International Expert Group, which develops recommendations on sanctions against the Russian Federation, Babel reports.

1,057 foreign components produced by 155 companies, including from the allied countries of Ukraine, namely American ones, were identified in the Russian weapons and equipment that the invaders used in the war against Ukraine.

A close-up photo shows Cypress Semiconductor chips in the on-board computer of a Russian 9M727 missile that the Ukrainian military assembled on the battlefield and presented to Reuters by a senior SSU official in Kyiv, July 19, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

The research uncovered that the Russian defense industry uses critical components of foreign production in the following weapons and equipment:

• Iskander-K and Calibre cruise missiles;
• UAV ("Orlan" and "Korsar");
• armored vehicles;
• artillery;
• upgraded ?-72 tanks,
• rocket-propelled ammunition for Tornado-G MLRS;
• Typhoon-K vehicles;
• helicopters;
• electronic warfare systems.

Critical components include chips, microprocessors, transistors, memory devices, voltage regulators, capacitors, transceivers, etc. American companies Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Microchip Technology, Intel Corporation, AMD, and German Infineon Technologies, along with Korean Samsung, produce most of the components.

In 2022, the export of critical components from the United States to Russia manufactured by Intel Corporation exceeded £700 million (previously 500 million).