Exclusive-Russia has secret military drones project in China, intel sources say By Reuters

(Reuters) – Russia has established a weapons program in China to develop and produce long-range fighter jets for use in the war with Ukraine, according to two sources from a European intelligence agency and documents reviewed by Reuters.

IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has developed and tested a new drone called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local experts, according to one of the documents, Kupol reported sent the Russian Ministry of Defense earlier this year explaining its mission.

Kupol told the Defense Department in a subsequent update that it was able to produce drones including the G3 at scale at a Chinese factory so that the weapons could be used in “special military operations” in Ukraine, a term used by Moscow for the war.

Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment for this article. China's Foreign Ministry told Reuters it was not aware of the project, adding that Beijing has strict measures to control the export of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a defense think tank based in London, said the delivery of UAVs from China to Russia, if confirmed, would be a major development.

“If you look at what China is known to have delivered so far, they were dual-use goods – they were things, small parts, that could be used in weapons systems,” he told Reuters. “This is what has been reported so far. But what we haven't really seen, at least in open source, is a written transfer of all the weapons systems.”

Still, Samuel Bendett, chief executive of the Center for New American Security (CNAS), a Washington-based think tank, said Beijing would be reluctant to open itself up to international sanctions by helping Moscow's war machine. He said more information is needed to determine whether China is playing a role in the production of drones for the Russian military.

The White House National Security Council said it was deeply concerned by a Reuters report on the drone program, which it said appeared to be an example of a Chinese company providing dangerous assistance to a Russian company sanctioned by the US.

The White House has not seen anything to suggest the Chinese government is aware of the transactions involved, but China has a responsibility to ensure that companies are not providing lethal aid to Russia for use by its military, a spokesman said.

The British Foreign Office has called on China to stop providing diplomatic and material aid to Russia's war effort.

“We are very concerned about reports that Russia is producing military drones in China,” the spokesman said.

“This adds to the growing evidence that Chinese companies are allowing Russia to illegally invade Ukraine. The supply of arms would be a direct contradiction to the statement from China that it will not provide arms to the rightful sides of the conflict.”

The G3 can travel about 2,000 kilometers with a payload of 50 kg, according to reports to the Russian defense minister from Kupol, which was placed under US sanctions on Dec. 2023. Samples of the G3 and other Chinese-made drone models have been brought to Kupol in Russia for further testing, and with the involvement of Chinese experts, they said.

The documents did not identify the Chinese drone experts involved in the project it said, and Reuters was unable to identify them.

Kupol has delivered seven Chinese-made military drones, including two G3s, to its headquarters in the Russian city of Izhevsk, according to two separate documents reviewed by Reuters, which are invoices sent to Kupol over the summer by the Russian company. two European intelligence sources said it acts as a liaison with Chinese suppliers. The invoices, one of which requests payment by , do not specify delivery dates or identify suppliers in China.

The two intelligence sources said the delivery of a sample of Kupol drones is the first physical evidence their agency has found of complete Chinese-made UAVs delivered to Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

They asked that they or their organization not be identified due to the sensitivity of the information. They also asked that certain details related to the documents be withheld, including their exact dates.

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Sources showed Reuters five documents in total, including two Kupol reports to the ministry in the first half of the year and two invoices, to support their claims of the presence of a Russian project in China to produce drones for use in Ukraine. The program has not been previously reported.

Kupol's reports did not provide more precise locations of work-related areas. Reuters was also unable to determine whether the defense minister had given the company the green light to proceed with the proposed serial production.

Beijing has repeatedly denied that China or Chinese companies have provided Russia with weapons to be used in Ukraine, saying the country is neutral.

In response to questions for this article, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters that China's position reflects the contrast with other nations that have “double standards in arms sales” which they say have “added fuel to the flames of the Ukrainian crisis”.

The ministry said earlier this month that there are no international restrictions on trade between China and Russia, when responding to a Reuters report that Kupol has begun producing the Garpiya-A1 long-range military aircraft in Russia using Chinese engines and parts.

New documents reported here show that state-owned Kupol has continued to acquire complete UAVs in China.

Both Russia and Ukraine are racing to ramp up their production of drones, which have emerged as effective weapons of war.

David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security Research group, and has done extensive work on Chinese-Russian cooperation in the production of drones, told Reuters that Kupol could bypass Western sanctions on Russia by establishing a production facility. in China where it can access advanced chips and expertise.

But Bendett at CNAS said Beijing has reason to tread carefully: “For there to be an industry that legally builds UAVs for the Russians exposes China to some of the worst consequences of sanctions, so it's unclear how much China will be willing to expose itself.”

The Ukrainian government did not respond to a request for comment on this article.

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The G3 is an upgraded version of the Garpiya-A1 drone, according to Kupol's reports sent to the defense ministry. It was rebuilt by Chinese experts working on the Garpiya-A1 blueprints, they said.

Kupol said that within eight months, the project in China will be ready to produce the Chinese-designed REM 1 attack UAV with a payload of 400kg. Two European intelligence sources said the system would be similar to the US Reaper drone.

Sources said another Russian defense company called TSK Vektor acted as a liaison between Kupol and Chinese suppliers for the project. They said the Russian firms were working with a Chinese company called Redlepus TSK Vector Industrial, based in Shenzhen, without specifying Redlepus' role.

TSK Vektor and Redlepus did not respond to requests for comment.

A separate document reviewed by Reuters revealed plans involving Kupol, TSK Vektor and Redlepus to establish a joint Russian-Chinese drone research center in the Kashgar special economic zone in China's Xinjiang province.

Reuters was unable to determine who produced the document, which bears the marks of three companies, or identify the intended recipient.

The 80-hectare “Advanced UAV Research and Manufacturing Base” facility will be able to produce 800 drones per year, the document said. No timeline has been given for when it will be implemented.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his military had acquired about 140,000 drones by 2023 and that Moscow plans to increase this number tenfold this year.

“Whoever responds quickly to the needs on the battlefield wins,” he told a meeting in St Petersburg about drone production.