International•5 Oct ’24 12:46•Adapted on 5 Oct ’24 13:24Author: Mark van Harreveld
Russia has a secret weapons program in China for the development and production of long-range attack drones. Reuters reports this based on two sources from a European intelligence service and documents that the news agency has seen. IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of the Russian state arms company Almaz-Antey, has developed and tested a new drone called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local specialists. The EU is ‘very concerned’.
UAV-training van het Chinese leger in Nanning. (ANP / REX by Shutterstock)
According to the documents, Kupol told the Russian Defense Ministry that it is capable of large-scale production of drones, including the G3, at a Chinese factory. The aim is deployment in the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. China’s supply of UAVs to Russia would be a major development if the news is confirmed, according to researcher Fabian Hinz of the London think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies. “If you look at what China has supplied so far, it has mainly been dual-use goods: parts, raw materials and semi-finished products that can be used in weapon systems,” said Hinz, who points out that the transfer of complete weapon systems is new.
‘Very disturbing’
A European Union spokeswoman last week called the Reuters news “very disturbing.” “If these reports are true, it would mean that Chinese companies are providing lethal assistance to Russia,” the spokeswoman said. “It would contradict the official Chinese narrative that it is not providing lethal weapons to support Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine, and therefore we expect the allegations to be thoroughly and promptly investigated and addressed by Chinese authorities.”
Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian Defense Ministry declined comment, and while the US State Department and the Ukrainian government also did not respond to Reuters’ request, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied knowledge of the project. However, it emphasized that China has strict control measures in place for the export of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Chinese angst
No one is surprised that China denies it. According to senior fellow Samuel Bendett of the American think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Beijing does not want to become the target of Western sanctions because it fuels Putin’s war. Bendett says that more information is needed before it can be firmly proven that Russian war drones are being produced in China. “The official existence of a factory building UAVs for the Russians exposes China to some of the more severe consequences of the sanctions, and it is not clear to what extent China would be willing to make itself vulnerable.”
The G3 can travel about 2,000 km with a payload of 50 kg, according to Kupol’s report to the Ministry of Defense. According to the documents, examples of the G3 and several other drone models have been sent from China to Kupol in Russia for further testing, where Chinese experts are also said to be involved. This would involve a total of seven military drones, delivered to Kupol’s headquarters in the Russian city of Izhevsk, two of which were G3s.
According to Reuters, this is evident from invoices sent to Kupol, which it has seen. The invoices were sent by a Russian company that, according to European intelligence sources, is the intermediary between Kupol and the Chinese suppliers. The invoices (one of which requests payment in Chinese yuan) do not include delivery dates or identification of the suppliers in China.
Sensitive information
The G3 is an improved version of the Garpiya-A1 drone, Kupols reports. According to the documents, the drone was redesigned by Chinese experts based on blueprints of the Garpiya-A1. A separate document seen by Reuters reveals plans involving Kupol, TSK Vektor (another Russian defense company) and China’s Redlepus to establish a Russian-Chinese drone research and production center in the Kashgar special economic zone in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. Reuters was unable to determine who drafted the document, which features the logos of the three companies, or who the intended recipient was. According to the document, the 80-hectare ‘Advanced UAV Research and Manufacturing Base’ could produce 800 drones annually.
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