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Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by miroljub on Thursday January 05, 2023 @10:06AM (#34260571)
> Of the 52 components Ukrainians removed from the Iranian Shahed-136 drone, 40 appear to have been manufactured by 13 different American companies, according to the assessment.

> The remaining 12 components were manufactured by companies in Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, and China, according to the assessment.

Not a single component produced in Russia? Somehow strange that a country that can send people to space and back is not capable of producing a single component for a military drone.

> According to the Ukrainian assessment

Ah, ok. So the source is trustworthy and objective, not a war party telling whatever they have to tell to support their cause.

Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by eunos on Thursday January 05, 2023 @10:33AM (#34261080)
Russia was strong in MechE and material science but surprisingly weak on electronic. I think Warsaw Pact's electronic workhorse was East Germany, especially Dresden.
Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by flohofwoe on Thursday January 05, 2023 @11:04AM (#34261743)
It was probably even. East Germany focused on Zilog clones (Z80 and Z8000 family - called U880 and U8000), while the Soviet Union focused on Intel x86 clones (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K1810VM86).

The most advanced microchip produced in East Germany was the '1-MBit chip' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U61000), but AFAIK this suffered from terrible yields and didn't really go into mass production.

Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by m4rtink on Thursday January 05, 2023 @01:52PM (#34264596)
Do not forget Czechoslovakia and Tesla:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_(Czechoslovak_company)

Here in Brno they also made world class electron microscopes & some of the leading electron microscopy companies still come from Brno or at least operate there (Delong Instruments, FEI, Thermo Fisher, etc.).

Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by cpursley on Thursday January 05, 2023 @10:18AM (#34260793)
This article is talking about the Iranian made drones not the domestic Russian ones. The Russian made stuff still has western parts but also domestic.
Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by mannerheim on Thursday January 05, 2023 @10:25AM (#34260928)
Russia and the USSR before it has never had the ability to manufacture good electronics. iirc their smallest process node is 65nm.

Modern optics are absolutely out of the question, which is why their Orlan drones have been found with consumer cameras for their optics.

Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by practice9 on Thursday January 05, 2023 @11:07AM (#34261838)
> their Orlan drones have been found with consumer cameras for their optics

As well as more advanced Thales thermal imaging systems that were installed in combat vehicles (tanks, IFV). AFAIK they were produced in Russia under a license from Thales (a French company) till at least 2016. Thales was likely evading sanctions

Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by m4rtink on Thursday January 05, 2023 @01:56PM (#34264660)
That might explain why their film-based spy sats[0] used to return the camera as well as the film, unlike their US counterparts[1][2] that just returned the film capsule.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenit_(satellite)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-9_Hexagon

Re:Iranian attack drone found to contain parts from more tha... by practice9 on Thursday January 05, 2023 @10:58AM (#34261607)
> Somehow strange that a country that can send people to space and back is not capable of producing a single component for a military drone.

Soyuz (as in both rocket and capsule) has had multiple failures over the last decade. The most recent was the coolant leak a few weeks ago that made the capsule unusable for a safe return to Earth. Under Rogozin their space industry degraded very quickly (probably one of the reasons why Rogozin was fired last year).

It's been known for some time that Russia gets components for its hi-tech weapons via a network of proxy companies in EU.

> So the source is trustworthy and objective, not a war party telling whatever they have to tell to support their cause.

US and Israel officials are clearly taking these reports seriously