Western components found in Russian weapons

A British defense think tank identified 450 unique microelectronic components in Russian military equipment left in Ukraine that appeared to be manufactured by United States, European and East Asian companies.

In partnership with Reuters, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) released a report on Monday detailing inspections of 27 Russian weapons systems and pieces of military equipment expended or lost since Russia invaded Ukraine and the group said the majority of the apparent Western components were manufactured by US companies.

“The preponderance of foreign-made components inside these systems reveals that Russia’s war machine is heavily reliant on imports of sophisticated microelectronics to operate effectively,” the group said in its report.

“This is despite persistent efforts by the Russian government to replace imports – in all aspects of its economy, including the military sector – with domestically produced materials in order to withstand international sanctions,” it continued.

Russia has been fighting Ukrainian forces for more than five months after invading the country on February 24. After failing to quickly take the capital city of Kyiv, Moscow refocused its efforts on the country’s industrial heartland in the east, known as the Donbas region, with no end to the conflict in sight.

RUSI said 317 of the 450 identified Western components appear to be from US companies, while components from Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, China, South Korea, the U.K. and Austria were also present.

The think tank cautioned it is possible the components are counterfeits of Western brands but indicated that wasn’t likely.

“Russia’s well-documented historical dependence on Western technology, and the critical role that some of the components play in the effective operation of the systems in which they were found, has led the research team to assume that the components are likely genuine,” the group said.

RUSI’s report states 56 US companies manufactured the “vast majority” of the components, and more than 200 of them appear to have been manufactured by just 10 companies. Texas Instruments was the most frequent US brand, accounting for 51 of the components. 

Of the 450 identified components, RUSI indicated 18% were assigned an Export Control Classification Number (ECCN), which would have required a government license for export to Russia even before Moscow invaded Crimea in 2014.

Others would have fallen under an EAR99 classification, RUSI said, which would not have required a license prior to Russia’s invasion in February.

“The presence of a large number of EAR99 and some ECCN classified items in Russian military equipment suggests that these components were either purchased by military equipment manufacturers from distributors in Russia, that they were procured under fake end-user certificates or that they were diverted for military applications at a later point,” the think tank said in its report.