Despite the sanctions, 1,057 foreign components from 155 companies are used in russian weapons

Despite the sanctions, the russian military-industrial complex continues to receive Western electronic components. In russian weapons and equipment, 1,057 Western components from 155 companies, mostly from the USA, were counted. This is reported by Babel citing the report The International Working Group on Russian Sanctions.

According to the study, critical components of Western production, such as microcircuits, microprocessors, transistors, voltage regulators, capacitors, receivers, etc., are used in: Iskander-K and Kalibr missiles; Orlan and Korsar drones; T-72 tanks; Tornado-G surface-to-air missiles; Typhoon-K cars and other armored vehicles; helicopters; REB stations.

Most of the components are produced by American companies Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Microchip Technology, Intel Corporation, AMD, German Infineon Technologies and Korean Samsung. For example, the export of Intel’s critical components exceeded $700 million in 2022 (previously $500 million).

The supply of electronic components to russia is mainly from China, a small share also goes through the EU, South Korea, Vietnam and Turkey.

In total, in 2022, the value of critical foreign components in Russian weapons amounted to about $2.9 billion. After a drop in imports in April-May 2022, volumes recovered almost to the level of the beginning of a full-scale invasion.