Engine developed in Königswinter
New Russian drone flies with help from China and Germany
Updated on September 14, 2024 – 10:41 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Soldiers examine a drone at an unknown location, which is said to be a new Russian development. (Source: National Police of Ukraine)
It is named after the winged creature Harpy from Greek mythology. The latest Russian drone apparently flies with Chinese help – and a German engine.
A newly developed Russian drone that went into production last year is apparently powered by an engine produced in China. A German company could also play a role. The Garpija-A1 (Russian for the harpy figure from Greek mythology) can fly particularly long distances. Documents obtained by the Reuters news agency and statements from security authorities are said to prove the connection to Beijing.
The documents include a production contract and correspondence from the companies involved. IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of the state-owned Russian arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey, produced 2,500 of the new drones from July 2023 to July 2024. According to Reuters, it was not previously known that Chinese components were used.
Pictures of wreckage from the drone have now appeared in Ukrainian media, apparently taken by Ukrainian intelligence services. The new aircraft could be an indication that Moscow is no longer solely dependent on the Iranian-made Shahed drones. “If this is the case, it could indicate that Russia can now rely more on domestic development and of course also on China, as both sides in this war rely on many Chinese components for drone production,” Samuel Bendett of the Washington-based think tank Center for a New American Security told Reuters.
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The Garpija drone looks not dissimilar to the Iranian models, and also has the typical triangular shape. It has a take-off weight of less than 300 kilos and a maximum range of 1,500 kilometers, according to the production contract between Kupol and the Russian Defense Ministry – roughly comparable to the Iranian Shahed-136 drones that Moscow uses extensively in Ukraine.
The L550E engine was originally developed by a German company, but is now being produced by Xiamen Limbach in China, according to Reuters. This is the new Chinese owner of the German aircraft engine manufacturer Limbach Flugmotoren, which has been producing engines of various sizes for sports aircraft and drones in Königswinter since 1970. The four-cylinder, two-stroke L550E boxer engine with 37 kW is air-cooled, has a single magneto ignition, four carburettors and runs on mixture lubrication. It weighs 16 kilograms.
Chinese companies Juhang Aviation Technology and Redlepus Vector Industries, both based in Shenzhen, are said to have supplied parts for the engine, according to Reuters. Juhang was sanctioned by the UK in February and the US in May for supplying Russia with drone equipment.
The Limbach L550E engine. It will also be used in Russian drones, reports the Reuters news agency. (Source: Limbach Motorenwerke)
The engines are said to have then been installed in the drone bodies at a factory in Izhevsk, a city in western Russia known for the production of the famous Kalashnikov rifles.
A prototype of the Garpija was launched in the first half of 2023, according to Reuters. Production reached several hundred units in the second half of 2023, according to information from manufacturer Kupol, and more than doubled to around 2,000 units in the first half of 2024, the agency said.
Company documents from the second quarter of 2023 reviewed by Reuters show that supplier TSK Vektor was sourcing parts from Chinese companies for assembly at the Kupol site. 800 Chinese engines were also to be delivered to the new plant, where the production line was to be completed by the end of the quarter. A key role is expected to be played by the US-sanctioned Russian company TSK Vektor LLC, which has long imported goods from China to Russia.
The undated finds in Ukraine show that the Garpijas are already in combat use. But Russia also wants to ramp up production of the Iranian Shahed-136 drones at its factory in Tatarstan, as the Washington Post reported in August.
