The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-20)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE G3

crashed on its territory in 2016. That one contained foreign-made components and Russian software, according to CAR and Lith- uanian security services. The case shows that Russia uses drones “for intelligence col- lection not only in conflict zones but also in peacetime in neigh- bouring NATO countries,” Lithu- anian authorities said in a 2019 document.

Natalia Abbakumova in Moscow contributed to this report.

Moscow’s regional government. The directorate was established to “implement state policy in the field of public and economic security,” according to the website of Moscow’s regional government. According to CAR, similar drone models have been recov- ered after flying over Syria and Libya, countries where Russian troops or mercenaries have also engaged in military action. Lithu- ania, a member of NATO, discov- ered an identical model that

not be reached for comment. The company was founded in the spa town of Karlovy Vary in 2008 by two residents of Moscow, according to Czech business registration documents identified by CAR and reviewed by The Post. From 2012 to 2014, a third Moscow-area resident served as a director of the company, according to those documents. CAR researchers found that this per- son was also a member of an advisory council to the Main Di- rectorate of Public Security for

Russian entity called ANO PO KSI, which it said purchased such items for educational institutions in Russia, according to the CAR report. ANO PO KSI, which is a Rus- sian a cronym for Professional As- sociation of Designers of Data Processing Systems, was added to a sanctions list by the United States in 2016 for allegedly aiding Russian military intelligence. On its website, ANO PO KSI describes itself as a nonprofit that makes high-tech products, including document scanners and cameras, for the Russian government and business customers. The organization didn’t respond to a request for comment. In an email to The Post, Silicon Sensing said it “vigorously” com- plies “with all export control laws and policies everywhere we do business.” It added, “These components were sold in 2012 to a commercial company that was not on an embargo list at that time. We have ceased doing business with that company and any related entities.” The drone also contained U.S.-made components designed for navigation and wireless com- munication. One of the suppliers, Digi International, based in Min- nesota, told CAR that it sold the wireless communications component to a U.S.-based distributor in March 2012, but that the distributor was unable to identify the ultimate recipient, according to the CAR report. Digi International told The Post that it screens all sales to be sure it isn’t supplying any prohib- ited parties in violation of U.S. export control laws. “We do not know how the product in ques- tion ended up in a Russian drone. We do not condone the use of our modules by foreign actors in military use cases,” the company said in an emailed statement. Maxim Integrated, based in California, told CAR that it manu- factured a navigation component found in the drone in 2013 and shipped it to its distributors in January 2014. It added that the component “is not designed for use in unmanned aerial vehicles.” Maxim parent company Ana- log Devices declined to clarify for The Post what the component is used for. In an emailed statement, the company said it “is commit- ted to full compliance with U.S. laws including U.S. export con- trols, trade sanctions and regula- tions.” Other companies in Switzer- land and the United Kingdom told CAR they were unable to track the chain of suppliers that had handled their components. The drone’s engine, a single-cyl- inder unit with an electronic ignition, traveled a particularly mysterious route, from a small company near Frankfurt, Ger- many, that makes parts for model airplanes. The company, 3W Modellmo- toren Weinhold, which did not respond to a request for comment, told CAR that it had sent the engine to World Logistic Group, a company based in the Czech Republic, in October 2013. The Czech company, which ceased operations in 2018, could

Russian networks have found ways around those obstacles. In 2015, several Russian agents were convicted of, or pleaded guilty to, federal charges of using a Texas- based company they set up to illegally export high-tech chips to Russian military and intelligence agencies. Under the broader blockade that U.S. officials are considering, the United States could compel many countries worldwide to cut their chip exports to Russia by telling them they aren’t allowed to use U.S. technology to make components for Russian buyers. Most chip factories worldwide, including those in China and Taiwan, use U.S. manufacturing tools or software in their produc- tion process, analysts said. The United States could limit the ban to Russia’s military and high-tech sectors or could apply it more broadly, potentially depriv- ing Russian citizens of some smartphones, tablets and video game consoles, The Washington Post recently reported, citing ad- ministration officials. CAR determined that the drones it investigated were used for reconnaissance missions in eastern Ukraine, where Russia has been fueling a separatist war since 2014. At the invitation of Ukraine’s security services, Spleeters from CAR flew to Kyiv in late 2018 to dissect the drone that was shot down in 2017. Using a duffel bag stuffed with screwdrivers, Allen wrenches and cameras, Spleeters disassembled and photographed the aircraft, looking for serial numbers and markings that could help identify where the parts came from. He and his colleagues then contacted the component suppliers to try to trace how the parts wound up in the drone. One motion-sensing chip was manu- factured by the British company Silicon Sensing Systems, which makes components for drones, car navigation systems and in- dustrial machinery. The company told CAR that it sold the chip in August 2012 to a Russian civilian electronics distributor, sending it through UPS in a package with 50-odd components, according to the CAR report. The Russian distributor told Silicon Sensing that the chip was to be used in a drone; it later added that it sold the chip to a

to Ukraine to dissect several
drones. All were loaded with
Western electronics.
Without those parts, said
Spleeters, who summarized his
findings in a report funded by the
European Union and Germany,
Russia would have found it
“much more difficult to produce
and operate the drones for sure.”
As tensions mount over a pos-
sible Russian invasion of
Ukraine, U.S. officials are consid-
ering trade sanctions designed to
deprive Russia of foreign-made
computer chips and electronics.
Spleeters’s investigation shows
how profoundly the ban could
hurt Russia’s military and why it
might be hard to pull off.
Russia is known for its scien-
tists and hackers but makes little
of its own electronics or comput-
er hardware, relying largely on
imports. Yet blocking the flow of
these goods could prove difficult.
Some of the drone components
that CAR identified traveled to
Russia via obscure middlemen
and small trading companies
whose businesses could be tough
to track.
What’s more, the relatively
small quantities that Russia’s mil-
itary is likely to need might allow
it to acquire components surrep-
titiously, said Malcolm Penn, the
chief executive of London-based
semiconductor research firm Fu-
ture Horizons.
“If you only want 500 or 1,000,
it’s easily doable and very hard to
stop,” he said. “All throughout the
Cold War, when in theory there
were no exports to the Soviet
Union, that didn’t stop them from
getting things. There are always
men with suitcases that go out to
the Far East and buy stuff and
come back.”
Another big wild card is China,
which could thwart any U.S. at-
tempt to choke off chips to Rus-
sia. CAR estimated that the
drones it examined were built
between 2013 and 2016, when
Western suppliers were more
dominant in the chip industry.
China has since become a much
bigger manufacturer of electron-
ic components, and is unlikely to
fully comply with any attempted
blockade, technology experts
said.
Russia relies on Asian and
Western countries to supply most
of its consumer electronics and
computer chips, which are the
brains that make electronics
function. Russian imports of
these goods in 2020 exceeded
$38 billion, according to United
Nations trade data.
The Soviet Union had a variety
of small semiconductor factories
churning out chips, mostly for
military use, according to Penn,
who visited some of the facilities
in the early 1990s. But the Soviet
breakup pushed Russia into a
long period of turmoil that
thwarted development of tech-
nology industries and manufac-
turing.
“The microelectronics indus-
try was completely decimated in
the 1990s,” said Sam Bendett, a
Russian-military analyst at the
Virginia-based research group
CNA. “It was just easier to import
these technologies, which were
widely available in the global
market.”
The Russian and Ukrainian
embassies in Washington did not
respond to requests for comment.
Russia retains some manufactur-
ers that produce chips of older
designs, including Mikron, which
was founded in Soviet times near
Moscow. Enterprises in the coun-
try also design chips known by
the names Baikal and Elbrus —
the latter used by the military —
but send many of the designs to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-
turing Co., the world’s largest
chip foundry, for fabrication.
Russian defense contractors in
recent years have claimed to have
revived some domestic manufac-
turing of high-tech military
equipment, including drones and
their components, Bendett said.
The United States and the Eu-
ropean Union restrict their ex-
ports of defense-related electron-
ics to Russia and have toughened
those rules in recent years. Yet

RUSSIA FROM G1

How Russia obtained Western parts in drones over Ukraine

VITALY TIMKIV/RUSSIAN NEWS AGENCY TASS/GETTY IMAGES Russian forces launch an unmanned aircraft for military exercises in 2017. Russian drones shot down over Ukraine that year had parts made in the United States and Europe.

CONFLICT ARMAMENT RESEARCH

This wireless communications part made in the United States was
found in a Russian military drone shot down over Ukraine in 2017.

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The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-20)

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