Speeds up to 500 km/h: China helped Russia create more dangerous Shahed jets - WSJ
The addition of new jet-powered variants of the "Shahed" attack drones—capable of reaching speeds of up to 500 km/h—to the Russian Federation's arsenal was made possible by regular shipments of components from China.
The Wall Street Journal reports this, according to Censor.NET.
Details
The new version of the drones flies nearly three times faster than previous models, which significantly complicates the work of Ukrainian air defense forces.
The WSJ notes that Chinese companies have long been the main source of drone components—from servo motors and gyroscopes to turbojet engines.
One of the main challenges facing Iranian engineers was developing a reliable, high-speed engine. They used the German Limbach L 550 E as a basis. In 2017, a Chinese company acquired the German manufacturer outright, giving Tehran direct access to the technology needed to create its own models using inexpensive Chinese parts, the publication reports.
Telefly Telecommunications Equipment, a company based in the People’s Republic of China, is specifically mentioned as a supplier of turbojet engines for attack drones. After Ukraine announced that it had detected components from this company in downed Russian drones, information about the engines was promptly removed from the English-language version of the manufacturer’s website, leaving it available only in Chinese.
Thanks to an international supply chain involving China, Iran and Russia were able to establish mass production of significantly faster and more lethal loitering munitions.
