 |
| Weapons Used by Russia to Invade Ukraine to Use Western-made Components (pict of ilustration) |
International Military - More than 450 foreign-made components have been found in the weapons Russia used against Ukraine . This is evidence that Moscow acquired important technology from companies in the United States (US), Europe and Asia in the years before the invasion.
As reported by Reuters on Monday (8/8/2022), this fact was revealed in a report published by the defense think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). According to the report, since the start of the war five months ago, the Ukrainian military has seized or recovered Russian weapons that were intact or partially damaged from the battlefield.
When dismantled, 27 of these military weapons and systems, ranging from cruise missiles to air defense systems, were found to rely mostly on Western components. This is the most detailed assessment published to date of the role played by the Western component in Russia's war against Ukraine.
About two-thirds of the components are manufactured by US-based companies, RUSI found, based on weapons recovered from Ukraine. Products manufactured by US-based Analog Devices and Texas Instruments account for nearly a quarter of all Western components in weapons.
Other components come from companies in pro-western countries, including Japan, South Korea, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. "Russian weapons that rely heavily on Western electronics have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians," said Jack Watling, ground warfare specialist at RUSI.
In one case, Russia's 9M727 cruise missile, one of the country's most advanced weapons that can maneuver at low altitudes to evade radar and can strike targets hundreds of miles away, contained 31 foreign components.
As a result of the RUSI investigation, the parts are made by companies including Texas Instruments Inc and US-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.O), as well as Cypress Semiconductor, which is now owned by Infineon AG(IFXGn.DE), a German company.
In another case, Russia's Kh-101 cruise missile, which has been used to strike Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kiev, also has 31 foreign components with parts manufactured by companies including US-based Intel Corporation and AMD's Xilinx.
In response to a question about how their chips ended up in Russian weapons, the companies said they were complying with trade sanctions and they had stopped selling components to Russia.