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US ‘Decoding’ Russian Hypersonic Missile To Gain Critical Intelligence On Mach 5+ Weapons – Media

Last week, several Russian media reports and social media handles claimed that researchers from the US Department of Defense are studying the captured Russian weapons to decode its hypersonic technology.

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One of the Russian social media users claimed on June 3 that “Specialists” representing the Pentagon specially visited Ukraine on a business trip and that they were “technicians who knew how to handle screwdrivers, wrenches, magnifiers and soldering irons” and dismantled the advanced Russian equipment “in the hope of copying something and getting it for themselves.”

However, these claims were based on a New York Times article about how investigators from Conflict Armament Research (CAR), over a week-long visit to Ukraine in May, at the invitation of the Ukrainian security service, independently analyzed the Russian military equipment, only to find that almost all of them included components from companies based in the US and the EU.

CAR is actually a UK-based Investigative organization that tracks the supply of conventional weapons, ammunition, and related military materiel into conflict-affected areas. While the organization does work with governments, it is not a part of or affiliated explicitly with the US Defense Department.

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The investigators ripped apart every piece of advanced Russian hardware they could get their hands on, for example, laser range finders and guidance sections of cruise missiles, and found Western-made parts such as microchips, circuit boards, engines, antenna and other equipment inside them.




An investigator desolders a component from a Russian surveillance drone collected by security officials working in Ukraine. The tools that Russian forces are using to wage war in Ukraine are often powered by American innovation. (Conflict Armament Research / via New York Times)

“Advanced Russian weapons and communications systems have been built around Western chips,” said Damien Spleeters, one of the investigators with CAR. He added that Russian companies had enjoyed access to an “unabated supply” of Western technology for decades.

This is basically a confirmation of the revelations already made by Ukraine about the use of Western-made components in advanced Russian weaponry.

Late last month, The EurAsian Times had reported how Ukrainian military specialists dismantled the remains of destroyed Russian equipment and found the abundant use of foreign microchips, particularly those manufactured in the US.

According to the list of components shared by Ukrainian Intelligence, these microchips were found in some of the high-end and widely fielded Russian military hardware such as the 9S932-1, a radar-equipped air defense command post vehicle that is part of the larger Barnaul-T system, a Pantsir air defense system, a Ka-52 “Alligator” attack helicopter, and a Kh-101 (AS-23A Kodiak) cruise missile.

According to New York Times, while the use of American and European components in Russian weaponry was alarming, it also provided the US and its allies with leverage over Russia.

The US and several of its partner countries have imposed export bans on shipments of advanced technology to Russia with the purpose of hampering the country’s ability to produce weapons to replace those that have been destroyed in the ongoing Ukraine war.

On June 2, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who oversees export controls, said, “US exports to Russia in the categories where we have export controls, including semiconductors, are down by over 90 percent since Feb. 24.”

Was Russia Forced To Use Kinzhal Hypersonic Missile?

These measures have already begun to take effect on the Russian defense industry, according to senior US officials cited by the New York Times who said that since Western allies announced extensive restrictions on exports of semiconductors, computers, lasers, telecommunications equipment and other goods in February, Russia has had difficulty in obtaining microchips to replenish its supply of precision-guided munitions (PGMs).

In fact, the use of Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched hypersonic ballistic missiles by the Russian military in Ukraine was actually forced due to a shortage of PGMs, according to various Western military experts, think tanks, and media reports cited by Forbes.

Interestingly, Russian media reports have made special reference to Kinzhal missiles while citing the New York Times article. For example, one Russian media report said, the American specialists visited the places where the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles hit and searched for their fragments.

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