Russia supplies most parts for Orlan drones abroad despite sanctions

This is stated in the investigation by Reuters, iStories, a Russian media outlet, and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

According to RUSI, the Russian Orlan UAV Orlan uses parts from American companies Altera and Xilinx, Texas Instruments, Microchip Technology, Analog Devices, Linear Technology; as well as European STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductors and Japanese Renesas Electronics and Saito Seisakusho.

“Based on Russian customs filings and bank records, the investigation marks the first time a supply route for American technology has been traced all the way to a Russian manufacturer, whose weapon system is used in Ukraine,” the authors say.

Under the sanctions, none of these companies has the right to supply their products to the Russian defense industry. However, the supplies continued through a chain of intermediaries, which was exposed by Reuters, iStories and RUSI investigators. In particular, the St. Petersburg-based company Special Technology Center (STC), which is under sanctions, has purchased Western components worth more than USD 25 million through intermediaries.

The Orlan-10 drone also uses microelectronics from American companies Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Xilinx (owned by AMD) and Taiwan's Getac, and Japanese engines from Saito.

The investigation says that the STC purchased some of the components from the St. Petersburg company SMT-ILogic, while the latter received Western parts from Hong Kong based company Asia Pacific Links. Total purchases amount to approximately RUB 6 billion.

• Earlier, Reuters and RUSI published an investigation, according to which over the past 7 months, Russia had received computer and electronic components worth USD 2.6 billion; USD 777 million of these products were manufactured by Western companies, whose chips were found in Russian weapons systems in Ukraine.