Component commonalities in advanced Russian weapon systems

Conflict Armament Research (CAR) investigators continue to physically document advanced weapon systems and communications equipment that the Russian Federation used in its war against Ukraine. This latest report provides an update to  CAR’s previous dispatch from May 2022  and looks into commonalities between recently manufactured components in Russian systems.

A CAR field investigation team returned to Ukraine from 12 to 16 July 2022 to document additional items and systems that Ukrainian authorities recovered from Russian forces starting in February 2022.

These included the components of a Ka-52 helicopter, multiple cruise missiles, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), and communications and navigation equipment, all of which were manufactured in the Russian Federation.

To date, CAR has identified a total of 144 non-Russian manufacturers of more than 650 unique component models in Russian materiel used in the war on Ukraine. Many of these items were manufactured after 2014, when the war in eastern Ukraine first began and the European Union and United States imposed an initial set of sanctions on the Russian Federation. Some items were produced as recently as 2021.

To date, CAR has identified a total of 144 non-Russian manufacturers of more than 650 unique component models in Russian materiel used in the war on Ukraine.

As satellite navigation systems are critical components of cruise missiles, CAR's finding that they all use the same non-Russian components highlights the centrality of foreign technology to Russian advanced defence equipment.

CAR also found that parts of the on-board computers of the Kh-101 missile and Ka-52 helicopter are identical and made of the same non-Russian components.

The graphic below shows two BT33-205 sheets of Baget-53-15 on-board computers of a Kh-101 missile (left) and Ka-52 helicopter (right), documented by CAR in Ukraine in May and July 2022, respectively.

CAR’s detailed physical analysis indicates that the Russian Federation is highly reliant on a narrow set of particular technology to produce the advanced weapon systems it has deployed since invading Ukraine in February 2022. More specifically, the evidence gathered so far demonstrates that the Russian defence industry has relied on a steady, unabated supply of parts from Asian, European, and US companies in manufacturing the materiel used in the war. By responding to this evidence, the application of new or existing measures could restrict the Russian Federation’s ability to acquire these components and produce such systems in the future.

CAR continues to investigate the exact chains of custody to the Russian defence industry, mainly by tracing these components with their manufacturers to confirm their provenance and how they came to be present in Russian weapons. The trace requests will help to inform companies and governments on the presence of such components in advanced Russian weapon systems. CAR’s tracing operations will also highlight supply chain vulnerabilities that allowed the Russian defence industry to acquire components, as well as associated diversion risks that remain to be addressed. CAR will not identify the manufacturers publicly until formal tracing requests have been issued, as per  CAR’s methodology .

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• Weapons of the War in Ukraine: This report is the result of a three-year study into the supply sources of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, armour, and artillery recovered from armed formations of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk ‘People's Republics’ in eastern Ukraine. ( English ) ( Russian ) ( Ukrainian )
•  Ukraine iTrace Resource Centre : Explore the weapons and ammunition data documented by CAR in Ukraine and read interactive case studies from our field reporting.   Access the Resource Centre .
•  Documenting Russia's advanced weapon systems in Ukraine : CAR field investigators document advanced weapon systems used by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, for the first time since its full-scale invasion in February.

Established in 2011, Conflict Armament Research generates unique evidence on weapon supplies into armed conflicts in order to inform and support effective weapon management and control.

CAR field investigation teams document illicit weapons, ammunition, and related materiel in conflict-affected locations and trace their supply sources. The teams inspect weapons in a variety of situations—whether recovered by state security forces, surrendered at the cessation of hostilities, cached, or held by insurgent forces. They document all items photographically, date and geo-reference the documentation sites, and incorporate contextual interview data gathered from the forces in control of the items at the time of documentation.

CAR occasionally uses information and photographs from social media as background information but does not base its investigations on them, since the provenance of such data is often difficult to verify. Moreover, open-source information does not always provide the detailed physical elements—notably external and internal markings required to trace weapons and ammunition.

For more information on CAR's methodology, go to   www.conflictarm.com  

For further enquiries and media requests, please email   communications@conflictarm.com  

Published online by Conflict Armament Research

 ^{© Conflict Armament Research Ltd., London, 2022   First published in September 2022   This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union and the German Federal Foreign Office. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of Conflict Armament Research and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the positions of the European Union or the German Federal Foreign Office.    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of Conflict Armament Research, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organisation. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the secretary, Conflict Armament Research (admin@conflictarm.com).   All photographs © Conflict Armament Research unless stated otherwise.}