Russia to buy US and German equipment for production of electronic warfare
A Russian company has signed agreements to purchase US and German equipment worth RUB 720 million to expand its production of radar receivers.
Here's What We Know
The Kaluga Radio Engineering Research Institute (KNIRTI), part of the Rostec Corporation, has signed contracts worth RUB 720 million to purchase equipment from Germany's Rohde Schwarz and the US-based Keysight. Despite the sanctions, the supplies are made through an intermediary.
KNIRTI has been developing electronic warfare systems since the last century and is part of the Radioelectronic Technologies concern of the Rostec Group. In particular, its systems are used to equip Su-24, Su-27, Su-30, Su-33, Su-34, and Su-35 aircraft. The institute also developed electronic warfare systems for staging helicopters and for the Su-57.
Documents confirming the purchase of the equipment. Illustration: "Agency"
Documentation on the public procurement website, found during the Agency's investigation, confirms the purchase. According to three state contracts, the equipment is needed to increase the production of "on-board electronic warfare systems".
According to the publication, the bulk of the RUB 620 million purchase will be manufactured by the international concern Rohde Schwarz in Germany, the Czech Republic and Malaysia.
This company specialises in the production of electronic equipment, which it supplies to the armies of Germany, Norway and Canada, among others. The Kaluga Institute plans to use analysers, analogue signal generators, vector analysers of electrical circuits, power supplies and oscilloscopes.
The institute will spend another RUB 100 million on multimeters and ultra-high-frequency analysers manufactured by the US company Keysight, which will be produced at its plant in Malaysia.
Documents confirming the purchase of equipment. Illustration: "The Agency"
The Institute was subject to US sanctions in 2019 and EU restrictions in 2024, so it uses an intermediary, Gradient, to make purchases, through which all contracts are signed.
This company is obliged to deliver the equipment by the end of 2025, and, according to public procurement data, deliveries are already underway. According to the acceptance certificates, at the end of December 2024, Gradient handed over an analogue signal generator SMA100B worth almost RUB 13 million to the institute.
Documents confirming the purchase of the equipment. Illustration: "Agency"
The Gradient company was founded in 2019 and is owned and managed by Moscow resident Sergey Ivanov. As the publication found out, it began supplying Western equipment to government agencies immediately after its establishment. The first such contract was the sale of a Keysight signal analyser to military unit 95006. Until 2022, the company's annual revenue did not exceed 106 million rubles, but in 2023 it grew 13 times to 965 million.
Source: "Agency"