Russian FPV drones "Molniya" and analogue of "Orlan" — "Phoenix" have foreign electronics, in particular from the Peopleʼs Republic of China, Switzerland, the USA and the Netherlands.
This was reported by the press service of the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“Molniya” is an aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicle that is launched from a special catapult and guided by operators like an FPV drone. The UAV has a flight range of up to 40 km and a warhead of up to 5 kg, which is ten times less than that of the Shahed.
Russia also uses these UAVs to terrorize the civilian population in cities and districts close to the front line. In November of this year, a high-rise building and a shopping center in the Saltivka district of Kharkiv were targeted, and several Ukrainian civilians were injured.
Previously, the Russian army used such drones without combat units to overload Ukrainian air defense.
Electric motors, flight controllers, cameras and the vast majority of electronic parts are marked by Chinese companies. These are FATJAY, SpeedyBee, Caddx, Huayi Microelectronics, Trex Technologies, etc.
At the same time, Chinese flight controllers, like many other boards of various Russian weapons, work on microcontrollers marked by the Swiss manufacturer STMicroelectronics, which has production facilities in nine countries. And the engine control board uses converters marked by the American manufacturer Vishay and capacitors by the Japanese company Rubycon.
"Fenix" is a reconnaissance drone, which in the Russian Federation is called "a development of Orlan-10". This drone has manufacturer-marked parts from five countries, namely: USA, Switzerland, PRC, Netherlands and Taiwan. But the most parts (7) have the markings of the already mentioned Swiss company STMicroelectronics.
- A study of the Russian "parody" showed that its flight controller module contains components manufactured by companies from China (Ebyte, Jiashan Jinchang Electron, Yangzhou Yangjie Electronic Technology), the USA (Texas Instruments, Cypress Semiconductor, InvenSense), Switzerland (STMicroelectronics) and Taiwan ( SONiX Technology).
- Russian Gerbera drones, which the Russian Federation uses to mimic the Shahed and Geran-2 to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses, also contain foreign electronics.
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