Companies powerless Putin uses Swiss technology in drones again
Russia has changed its tactics for drone attacks: The Kremlin is using particularly cheap drones without warheads to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Technology from Switzerland is helping.
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- New tactics: Russia is attacking Ukraine with significantly more drones, but many decoys are now being used to overwhelm the air defenses.
- One of these cheap decoy drones is the Parodija, two of which crashed in Moldova on November 10.
- Even the cheap drone does not manage without foreign components: The technology comes from China, the USA, Taiwan and Switzerland.
- STMicroelectronics from Plan-les-Ouates GE produces semiconductors in Malaysia that are shipped to Russia via third countries.
In September, the Russian army attacked Ukraine with 1400 drones. In October there were over 2000: the Kremlin has changed its tactics with regard to remote-controlled aircraft.
The significant increase is due to the fact that Moscow is using far more decoys: Cheap drones fly ahead of Shahed and co. to overwhelm enemy air defenses. They do not have a warhead, but they have what it takes to pave the way for the more dangerous drones.
One such decoy is - as the name suggests - the Parodija, which uses a Lüneburg lens to disguise itself as a Shahed-136 drone, but is significantly cheaper than the latter. The cost is said to be between 100 and 200 dollars, whereas the Shahed costs a five-figure sum. However, Russia cannot even build this cheap variant without outside help.
Chips were produced in 2022 and 2023
On November 10, two Parodiya crashed in the Republic of Moldova, which were analyzed by Ukrainian military intelligence shortly afterwards. They discovered four components from China, three from the USA, one from Taiwan and one from Switzerland.
The company affected is STMicroelectronics from Plan-les-Ouates GE, which is the largest European semiconductor manufacturer and has factories in Malta, Laysia, China and the Philippines. The Swiss company's components were produced in Malaysia in 2022 and 2023.
This is not the first time that Swiss technology has appeared in products from nations under sanctions. Components from STMicroelectronics have already been found in Russian drones such as the Orlan-10, Eleron-3SV and Kub-Bla, as well as the Ch-101 cruise missile.
Manufacturer powerless against misuse
The company U-blox AG from Thalwil ZH has produced modules for the Russian Global navigation satellite system and components for the Iranian Shahed-136 - albeit, like STMicroelectronics, rather involuntarily. The chips and semiconductors are dual-use goods that are used in both civilian and military applications.
These components are exported to Russia via third countries. Countries in Central Asia, for example, buy washing machines on a large scale in order to extract the electronics and sell them on in Russia for a profit. The producers of the technology are generally unaware of these processes.