Reuters: Russia has secret drone development program in China

Russia has launched a secret program to develop military drones in China for use in the war against Ukraine, Reuters reports, citing sources in European intelligence.

“IEMZ [Izhevsk Electromechanical Plant – ed.] Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has developed and flight-tested a new drone model called Garpiya-3 (G3) in China with the help of local specialists,” the report says.

Journalists at the news wire have obtained a report from Kupol that was submitted to the Russian Defense Ministry earlier this year. It details the company’s activities and developments in military drone technology.

“Kupol told the defense ministry in a subsequent update that it was able to produce drones including the G3 at scale at a factory in China so the weapons could be deployed in the “special military operation” in Ukraine, the term Moscow uses for the war,” Reuters writes.

The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that it is unaware of the project. 

Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based defense think-tank, said that if confirmed, the supply of drones from China to Russia would be a significant turning poin.

“If you look at what China is known to have delivered so far, it was mostly dual-use goods – it was components, sub-components, that could be used in weapon systems,” he said. “This is what has been reported so far. But what we haven’t really seen, at least in the open source, are documented transfers of whole weapon systems.”

U.S. and Kyiv officials have expressed concern over what they describe as China’s support for the Russian military machine. The delivery of drone samples from Kupol is the first concrete evidence that drones made in China have been delivered to Russia. The Garpiya-3 drone is capable of flying over 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) with a payload of 50 kilograms (110 pounds).

Notably, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated this week at a UN Security Council meeting that achieving peace in Ukraine requires stopping attempts by Iran, North Korea and China to support Russia’s aggression and to back Ukraine’s initiatives to end the war.