Reuters reported on Thursday that Chinese drone experts have visited Russia to work on military drones for IEMZ Kupol, a weapons manufacturer owned by the Russian government placed under sanctions by the U.S. government in 2023.
IEMZ Kupol, more formally known as Joint Stock Company Izhevsk Electromechanical Plant Kupol, is a subsidiary of JSC Aerospace Defense Concern Almaz-Antey, a company owned by the Russian state.
Kupol was one of over 150 individuals and entities placed under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department in December 2023 for materially supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kupol was specifically sanctioned for producing anti-aircraft defense equipment for the Russian military and for supporting its parent company’s efforts to “develop and manufacture one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the Russian Ministry of Defense.”
Kupol went on to produce thousands of Garpiya drones, Russia’s version of the notorious Shahed suicide drone from Iran. According to the Ukrainian military, Russia is now expending hundreds of the single-use drones to attack Ukrainian targets every day.
Reuters reviewed documents that showed Chinese experts in drone warfare have paid over half a dozen visits to Kupol’s facilities in Russia since the second quarter of 2024.
Kupol has also allegedly received over a dozen suicide drones made by a Chinese company called Sichuan AEE, possibly to study and duplicate their technology. The documents seen by Reuters included shipping details for the Sichuan AEE drones to be delivered to Russia through an intermediary.
Another document described a visit by Chinese technical experts to Kupol’s facility in the city of Izhevsk to teach Russian staff how to assemble and operate the Chinese drones. The Chinese technicians were portrayed as employees of a Russian company called TSK Vektor, but European officials who spoke to Reuters said they were actually Sichuan AEE staffers.
The product of this collaboration appears to be the Garpiya-3 or G3, the latest Russian version of the Iranian Shahed suicide drone. The U.S. Treasury Department has said China’s Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Company is producing engines in China that will be used in the new Garpiya drone. Several other key elements of the G3 also appear to be Chinese in origin, including its data processing system. Final assembly of each drone is completed on Russian soil by Kupol.
The G3 drone reportedly has significantly longer range than earlier models, able to hit targets up to 1,200 miles away. The earlier Garpiya drones had a maximum range of about 930 miles.
The documents seen by Reuters suggested Kupol is thinking about branching out from the “flying bomb” model of kamikaze drone Russia imported from Iran. Some of the drones supplied by China were reusable surveillance models that could also carry weapons. A letter included in the trove of documents discussed a joint project between Chinese and Russian technicians to create a new drone called the GA-21, which would appear to be a Russian version of Iran’s reusable Shahed-107 surveillance and attack platform.
Reuters was unable to obtain a comment from the Kremlin, the Russian Defense Ministry, or IEMZ Kupol about its report, while the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed to know nothing about the drone collaboration.
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