Chinese components fuel Russian arms despite sanctions loopholes
In Russian UMPK kits that convert regular bombs into guided glide bombs, components are used that are imported while bypassing sanctions. Although the initial tracers seemed to lead to Taiwan, further investigations revealed that companies from China are collaborating with the Russians.
An investigation conducted by InformNapalm led to documents related to the servo drives of the Taiwanese company TRC. After these documents were published in the media, experts on sanctions and the Taiwanese public became involved. Vadym Labas, in a detailed post on Facebook, explained that new facts have been discovered, shedding a completely new light on the entire matter.
Chinese companies are cooperating with Russia
It turns out that the Taiwanese company TRC is a victim here. In reality, the manufacturer of the servo drives used by the Russians is the Chinese factory KST Digital Technology Limited.
A special scheme was developed for transferring equipment to Russia. The most crucial stages involved selling the produced servo drives to a non-existent Chinese company, Kaiffeng Zhendaqian Technology (KZT), which then passed them to another fictitious Chinese company (UNIHUI INTERNATIONAL LIMITED), where illegal rebranding took place to "masquerade" as the Taiwanese TRC.
Chinese servo drives in Russian bombs and drones
Vadym Labas noted that this scheme is also used for other transactions that Russia needs to conceal.
The Chinese factory KST Digital Technology Limited, recently investigated, also supplies Russia with components needed for the production of Shahed kamikaze drones. Initially, these components were ordered from Iran, but for several months now, they have also been produced in Russia. In 2024 alone, at least 10,000 Shahed drones could be produced in Putin's country. The unmanned vehicles, measuring about 11 feet in length, can carry loads of up to 88 lbs and accelerate to approximately 115 mph.
UMPK kits (Unified Module Planning and Correction Set), which can be used on FAB-500, FAB-1500, and FAB-3000 bombs, hold even greater significance for the Russians. Thanks to these kits, it is possible to transform a regular bomb into a guided glide bomb with significantly greater capabilities. This solution resembles the American JDAM-ER conversion kits.
