Russia uses Western equipment in the production of Oreshnik missiles

According to the FT, two leading Russian weapons engineering institutes identified by Ukrainian intelligence as the developers of Oreshnik were looking for workers who were familiar with the metalworking systems of German and Japanese companies.

In particular, vacancies for the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering (MIT) and Constellation, which were tracked by the Financial Times, illustrate that Russia remains critically dependent on foreign technologies that are covered by Western sanctions.

The publication investigated that MIT announcements for 2024, the leading institution for the development of Russian solid-fuel ballistic missiles, note that “we use Fanuc, Siemens, Haidenhein systems.”

Fanuc is a Japanese company, and the other two are German. All three companies produce control systems for high-precision CNC machines.

“Russia has long relied on foreign-made machine tools, despite efforts to create domestic alternatives. While the Kremlin purchases large quantities of high-precision metalworking machines from China, their control systems continue to be supplied from the West,” writes the FT.

Although export controls have slowed the flow of these goods into Russia, the publication’s analysis of Russian declarations shows that since the beginning of 2024, at least $3 million in shipments have arrived in Russia, which include Heidenhain components. Some of their customers have deep ties to military production.