Captured Russian Weapons Are Packed With U.S. Microchips
Ukraine intelligence officials who provided the component list also could not say where the chips originated.
But Skip Parish, a counter-drone/directed energy weapons/electronic warfare/red team subject matter expert for NATO and the U.S. military, reviewed the list of components provided by Ukraine intelligence and said they raise a number of issues.
A photo of some of the microchips Ukraine intelligence said it found in the communications system of a Barnaul-T air defense system. Ukraine intelligence photo.
It highlights, he said, a “total dependence on western technology” in applications of “integrated chips sets in key sensitive working parts of Russian weapon systems - targeting, navigation, communications and execution of the weapon."
“We have reports from Ukrainians that when they find Russian military equipment on the ground, it’s filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators,”
Raimondo testified, who
recently met with Ukraine’s prime minister.
While components found in appliances, for instance, are harder to prevent falling into the wrong hands, U.S. officials, Parish said, do have the authority to prevent shipments of those dual-use chips if they consider the application to have critical military uses.
There is already a lot of evidence that existing sanctions are hurting
Russia's defense industry. And Ukraine claims that the older components Russia is using, particularly in the Kh-101, make them less effective. But given Russia's reliance on the large numbers of microchips, semiconductors, and other components floating around - and its close relations with China, a top manufacturer and recycler of these parts - the long-term effects of sanctions, at least in regards to high-tech components like chips, remains to be seen.
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