Drone factory | |
|---|---|
| Manufactory | |
| Owner | Russian Federation |
| Location | Alabuga Special Economic Zone, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia |
 | |
The Yelabuga drone factory is an unmanned aerial vehicle and loitering munition factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, near Yelabuga, Repbulic of Tatarstan, Russia, operated by the Russian company Albatross. It develops drones for military use in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and is largely staffed by college students, including minors.
The manufacturing plant develops Shahed-style loitering munitions [1] and "Albatross" reconnaissance drones. [2] It is located in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, near Yelabuga, Repbulic of Tatarstan, Russia, more than 1,300km from the Ukraine-Russia border. [1] Within the Special Economic Zone, the drones are reportedly referred to as "boats" (Russian : лодок). [3] "Big boat" refers to the Shahed-136, called the "Geran-2" in Russian service, while "small boat" refers to the Shahed 131, called the "Geran-1" in Russian service. [4] The project as a whole has been called "Project Boat." [5] Other code words used by engineers include "bumpers" to refer to explosive payloads, and "Ireland" or "Belarus" to refer to Iran. [5] The agreement between Iran and Russia has been describe as a franchise by The Washington Post, in which Iran shares project documentation, locally produced or reverse-engineered components, and technical knowledge. [4]
The facility was built near the Kama River, allowing direct transportation via ship directly from Iran through the Caspian Sea. [6] [2] The plant was built with materials provided by Iran. [7] The plant is operated by Albatross, a Russian company that previously made agricultural technologies, [2] and now produces drones for use in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [7] Albatross has developed long-range reconnaissance drones for use in the war, called "Albatross" or "Albatros M5" drones. [2] [8] Before and during the plant's development, Iran supplied loitering munitions for Russia to use in the invasion of Ukraine. [9] [10] [11] The factory opened in July 2023. [2]
Russia initially intended to build 6,000 drones by summer 2025 [12] at a rate of 310 drones per month, operating the factory 24 hours a day. [6] Russia then plans to produce an additional 6,000 Shahed attack drones per year, in addition to surveillance drones. [13] It predicted the cost of production of one Geran-2 would be US$48,000, or 25% of the cost to purchase. [6] By April 2024, Western sources reported the plant had already produced 4,500 Shahed drones. [14] [13]
Russian soldiers are trained to operate the drones in Syria by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, [13] each designated terrorist organizations by several nations. [15] [16] [17] [note 1]
Leaked documents showed Alabuga has struggled to staff the factory. The initial plan included hosting 810 staff members working in three shifts to operate the manufactory 24 hours a day. [4] [6] However, the staff lacked expertise in various aspects of drone development. Consequently, numerous employees, including managers, engineers, students, and manual labourers, have travelled to Iranian drone manufactories for training. By the end of spring 2023, 200 employees and 100 students had been trained at Iranian centres. [4]
In an effort to recruit women ages 16 to 22, Alabuga has advertised subsidized housing and a wage starting at $550 a month. [4] Due to employee discomfort in building weapons for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Alabuga has increased salaries. Some employees working at the drone manufactory earn ten times the median Russian wage. [4] Management have also seized passports to prevent people from quitting. [4]
In July 2023, an investigation revealed the factory employs students as young as 15 of Alabuga Polytech, a branch of the Yelabuga Polytechnic College. As of August 2023, the factory had several hundred students employed. [18] The students were promised a job and a locally competitive salary of up to 70,000 rubles (US$700) per month for a work experience program. Instead, students enrolled were forced into working at the drone facility, [4] where their salaries are contingent on meeting production quotas, sometimes working 15 hours shifts without overtime pay, and "often without proper breaks or meals, and under hostile conditions that have deeply affected their mental health." [18] School staff instructed students not to tell their parents about the drone assembly work, [18] or they would be fined 1.5 million to 2 million rubles, per their employment contract with Alabuga Polytech. [19]
Russian businessmen have been advertising and recruiting in Africa for the drone factory, specifically targeting women. [13] The Wall Street Journal reported one event in which the businessmen rented a hall at a school in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to pitch employment opportunities to young female students. The pitch advertised a work-study program for skilled labour, offering a wage triple what the women would earn in Uganda, free accommodations, and a university diploma. The Wall Street Journal also reported the tone and message of the work-study pitches were intended to be anti-colonial, "echoing some of the language of the Cold War and reflecting Russia’s attempts to use soft power to dilute Western influence in East Africa." [13] According to Ugandan officials, over 1,000 women from across Africa have gone to the Special Economic Zone, predicting a further 1,000 would join in 2024. [13]
Starting in January 2023, the plan for the drone factory was to implement production in three phases: The first phase was to reassemble (as knock-down kits) 100 drones per month, imported from Iran. The second phase would include the drone factory producing its own airframes (the drones' hollow bodies). The third phase would include producing another 4,000 drones by September 2025 with little assistance from Iran. [4]
During the first phase, Russia reported that around 25% of drones shipped from Iran were damaged or inoperable. [4]
Leaked data provided by Iran to Russia indicated that 90% of an Iranian Shahed-136's computer chips and electrical components are manufactured in the West, primarily in the United States. [4] The components are sold as civilian products. The American companies that produce these components include Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, and Xilinx, a company acquired in 2022 by AMD. [4] Without further elaboration, a leaked document listed supplies available in Russia and indicated that Mouser and DigiKey could be potential suppliers for components. [4]
The Shahed-136 is powered by a Mado MD550 engine made by Mado, based on a German Limbach Flugmotoren L550E engine illicitly obtained by Iran. [4] An investigation submitted by Ukraine to the G7 in September 2023 revealed Shahed drones are built with commercially available parts sold by companies headquartered in the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Poland. [20] The document suggested there is no deliberate wrongdoing on the part of the companies, and that, due to the commercial availability of the parts, the parts are simply poorly regulated or are uncontrolled. The document also reported the components are imported to Iran from Turkey, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Costa Rica. [20]
In July 2023, Albatross's co-founder, Ilya Voronkov, said in interviews that 70% of its drones' components are made in Russia, while other parts such as the engine are from China. Albatross's website advertises cameras, electronics, and other equipment from European, US, and Asian companies. [2] US officials later reported China had supplied Russia with military hardware in addition to optics, microelectronics and other dual-use materials that could be used in drones. Ukraine reported that Russia sourced engines for their attack drones from the Chinese company called Beijing MicroPilot UAV Flight Control Systems. [13] Other supplies are provided by Iranian front companies often based in places like Hong Kong or Dubai. [14]
The airframe is constructed from materials provided by Russian and Belarusian companies. A sample of a material used to make the wings was provided by the Chinese company Metastar to the drone manufactory. [4] Since production has commenced at the drone factory in Yelabuga, Russian engineers have replaced both glue and Chinese electronics deemed inadequate, and have waterproofed and redesigned the airframe. [4] Russia has also begun producing its own warheads. [14] Further improvements underway include an effort to make the Geran-2s capable of swarm strikes, in which the drones autonomously coordinate an attack on a target. [4]
Shahed drones were previously built by Shahed Aviation Industries in Iran, where, allegedly, every drone manufactory has two backup sites in the event of an aerial attack at one site. [6]
In December 2022, the Biden administration publicly accused Iran and Russia of moving to cooperate in the construction of a drone manufacturing plant in Russia. [21] In June 2023, the White House released a U.S. intelligence report revealing Iran was supplying Russia with materials to construct the drone manufactory, predicting it would be fully operational by early 2024. [22] Photo and video evidence from Russian social media indicated Albatross commenced some reconnaissance drone production in January 2023. [2]
In September 2023, during the seventy-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly, the United States directly accused Iran of both supplying Russia with drones during the invasion of Ukraine, and of assisting Russia with the development of a drone manufacturing plant. Despite mounting evidence, president of Iran Ebrahim Raisi denied sending drones for use in the invasion, responding, "We are against the war in Ukraine." [23] Iran had also said it provided drones to Russia only before the start of the war. [24] Russia has also dismissed reports of it working with Iran, saying Russia relies on its own research and development. [25] The Ukrainian report to G7, submitted in August 2023, further detailed the Iranian government was trying to "disassociate itself from providing Russia with weapons" and that "[Iran] cannot cope with Russian demand and the intensity of use in Ukraine." [20] US officials determined that Iran continues to supply the Russian military with suicide drones, having shipped hundreds by May 2023, shipping them from the Amirabad Special Economic Zone and Port, Iran to Makhachkala, Russia. [24]
In a 2 April 2024 offensive, the drone factory was struck by an improvised drone apparently adapted from a civilian light aircraft, likely an Aeroprakt A-22. Ukraine's military intelligence said the strike "caused significant destruction of production facilities." [1] Local governor Rustam Minnikhanov said the attack brought no serious damage or disruption to production. [26] [1] Russian media reported a nearby workers' dormitory was damaged, with 12 injured. [27] [28]
Yelabuga is a town in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kama River and 200 kilometers (120 mi) east from Kazan. Population: 70,728 (2010 Russian census); 68,663 (2002 Census); 53,537 (1989 Soviet census).
Relations between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Persian Empire (Iran) officially commenced in 1521, with the Safavids in power. Past and present contact between Russia and Iran have long been complicatedly multi-faceted; often wavering between collaboration and rivalry. The two nations have a long history of geographic, economic, and socio-political interaction. Mutual relations have often been turbulent, and dormant at other times.
Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA), or Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Corporation, is an Iranian aircraft production company. Established in 1976, it belongs to the Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) and is located at Shahin Shahr, Isfahan province. Approximately 2 million square meters or 500 acres of land on which the company is established was gifted by the locally notable and well-regarded Boroumand family. The company has thousands of square meters of available grounds, and 250,000 square meters of shops and hangars are allocated to A/C part manufacturing, assembling, laboratories, flight test facilities and shops of preparation for production.
Alabuga is a special economic zone of an industrial and production type located in a 20 km² area in the Yelabuzhsky District of the Republic of Tatarstan in the Kama Innovative Territorial Production Cluster 10 km from Yelabuga, 25 km from Naberezhnye Chelny, 40 km from Nizhnekamsk and 210 km from the regional center — Kazan. The shareholders of the management company of the SEZ "Alabuga" are the Russian Federation through the JSC "Special Economic Zones" with 100% state participation.
The Shahed 129 is an Iranian single-engine medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) designed by Shahed Aviation Industries for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Shahed 129 is capable of combat and reconnaissance missions and has an endurance of 24 hours; it is similar in size, shape and role to the American MQ-1 Predator and is widely considered as one of the most capable drones in Iranian service.
Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare or marine warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Iraq, Italy, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Poland are known to have manufactured operational UCAVs as of 2019.
Elabuga Institute, a branch of Kazan Federal University, is a state educational institution of higher professional education of the Russian Federation.
A loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone, kamikaze drone, or exploding drone, is a kind of aerial weapon with a built-in warhead that is typically designed to loiter around a target area until a target is located, then attack the target by crashing into it. Loitering munitions enable faster reaction times against hidden targets that emerge for short periods without placing high-value platforms near the target area and also allow more selective targeting as the attack can be changed mid-flight or aborted.
The Islamic Republic of Iran and Ukraine established formal diplomatic relations on 22 January 1992. Iran recognized Ukraine as an independent sovereign state on 25 December 1991, four months after the Ukrainian SSR issued the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine amidst the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Iran has an embassy in Ukraine's Kyiv, and Ukraine has an embassy in Iran's Tehran. The two countries enjoyed a generally cordial relationship with each other until January 2020, when Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, killing all of the 176 civilians onboard.
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014. The invasion became the largest attack on a European country since World War II. It is estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties. By June 2022, Russian troops occupied about 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled the country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage caused by the war has been widely described as an ecocide, while war-related disruption to Ukrainian agriculture and shipping contributed to a world food crisis. The Russian attacks on civilians have been characterised by scholars as genocide and democide against Ukrainians.
Amirabad Port or Amirabad Special Economic Zone And Port is the largest port on the Caspian Sea. It is located in the north of Behshahr County, next to the peninsula and the biosphere reserve of Miankaleh in Iran.
There have been attacks in mainland Russia as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. The main targets have been the military, the arms industry and the oil industry. Many of the attacks have been drone strikes, firebombing, and rail sabotage. The Ukrainian intelligence services have acknowledged carrying out some of these attacks. Others have been carried out by anti-war activists in Russia. There has also been cross-border shelling, missile strikes and ground raids from Ukraine, mainly in the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk oblasts. Several times, Ukrainian-backed armed groups have launched incursions from Ukraine into Russia, captured border villages and battled the Russian military. While Ukraine has supported these ground incursions, it has denied direct involvement.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces have launched several missile attacks over the city of Dnipro in Ukraine. These have led to dozens of fatalities and over a hundred injuries among the civilian population.
The HESA Shahed 136, also known by its Russian designation Geran-2, is an Iranian-designed loitering munition, also referred to as a kamikaze drone or suicide drone, in the form of an autonomous pusher-propelled drone. It is designed and manufactured by the Iranian state-owned corporation HESA in association with Shahed Aviation Industries.
The Shahed 131, or Geran-1 in Russian service, is an Iranian-made exploding drone which came to prominence in October 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is powered by a Wankel engine model Shahed-783/788.
Aerial warfare in the Russian invasion of Ukraine began at dawn of 24 February 2022, with infantry divisions and armored and air support in Eastern Ukraine, and dozens of missile attacks across Ukraine. The first fighting took place in Luhansk Oblast near the village of Milove on the border with Russia at 3:40 am Kyiv time. The main infantry and tank attacks were launched in four spearhead incursions, creating a northern front launched towards Kyiv, a southern front originating in Crimea, a south-eastern front launched at the cities of Luhansk and Donbas, and an eastern front. Dozens of missile strikes across Ukraine also reached as far west as Lviv. Drones have also been a critical part of the invasion, particularly in regards to combined arms warfare. Drones have additionally been employed by Russia in striking Ukrainian critical infrastructure, and have been used by Ukraine to strike military infrastructure in Russian territory.
During the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine The Russian Military has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian medical facilities, hospitals, clinics, and ambulances, and health workers. The Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom stated that Russia was prioritizing attacks on Ukrainian medical facilities as a method of warfare, often striking these, as well as power infrastructure with Iranian-made drones such as Shahed 131, Shahed 136.
Iran has supported Russia both diplomatically and militarily since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It has voted against United Nations resolutions condemning Russia and has regularly delivered loitering munitions, chiefly the Shahed 131 and Shahed 136, to the Russian military. Several countries have accused Iran of violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which was adopted with full support of the sitting members in July 2015 and seeks to inspect the Iranian nuclear program in preparation for ending United Nations sanctions against Iran. Additionally, Ukraine and the United States, among others, have stated that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has had a presence in Russian-occupied Crimea for the purpose of operating Shahed drones in attacks against Ukrainian cities. Some of these IRGC personnel have reportedly been killed by Ukrainian military strikes against Russian-occupied territory; the Iranian involvement in Russia's invasion has negatively impacted Iran–Ukraine relations while intensifying existing tensions between Iran and the United States.
Shahed drones are unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and loitering munitions developed by Iranian company Shahed Aviation Industries. The drones are made of commercial components.
По словам студентов, у всех, кто задействован в производстве «лодок» (напомним, так на особом языке особой экономической зоны называются дроны-камикадзе)...
Кроме того, учащимся нельзя разглашать информацию о производстве — такой пункт прописан в их договоре об обучении. За его нарушение студента могут обязать выплатить колледжу штраф в 1,5-2 млн рублей.