U.S. Microchips End Up In Russia's Killer Orlan-10 Drones

Among the suppliers to Russia's drone program has been a Hong Kong exporter, Asia Pacific Links Ltd, which provided millions of dollars in parts. Many of the parts are microchips from the US, Stephen Grey, Maurice Tamman and Maria Zholobova reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: A downed Orlan-10 drone

Asia Pacific's exports to Russia were delivered to one importer in St. Petersburg with close ties to the Special Technology Center. The company, SMT iLogic, shares an address with the drone maker.

Asia Pacific's owner, Anton Trofimov, is an expatriate Russian who graduated from a Chinese university and has other business interests in China as well as a company in Toronto, Canada.

In the seven months between March 1 and September 30, since Russia's February invasion, Asia Pacific exported parts valued at about $5.2 million, up from about $2.3 million in the same period of 2021, making it iLogic's biggest supplier. Many of the components were made by US tech firms, the records also show.

Among the parts Asia Pacific sent to iLogic were $1.8 million of chips made by Analog Devices, $641,000 made by Texas Instruments, and $238,000 by Xilinx.

The supplies also included model aircraft engines made by a Japanese firm, Saito Seisakusho, that are used in the Orlan 10. Saito said it was unaware of the shipments.

Since 2017, iLogic has imported about $70 million of mostly electronic products into Russia. Nearly 80% of the company's income is from its business with the Special Technology Center.

Russia's Ministry of Defense paid iLogict nearly 6 billion rubles ($99 million) between February and August this year. Igor Kazhdan, a 41-year-old U.S.-Russian citizen, owns a company, IK Tech, that sold about $2.2 million worth of electronics to Russia between 2018 and 2021, more than 90% of which was sold to iLogic.

IK Tech sold iLogic about 1,000 American-made circuit boards between October 2020 and October 2021. The boards, valued at about $274,000, were made by a California manufacturer, Gumstix, James Pomfret and Anna Mehler Paperny also reported for Reuters.

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