Russia's new ‘Frankenstein' missile terrorising Ukraine
For weeks, a new Russian missile has been tormenting Ukraine.
It is fast, lethal and was unrecognisable until Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) unmasked it as the S8000 'Banderol'.
Translated as 'small parcel' in English, it is a lightweight, low-cost, small cruise missile that reaches speeds of 400mph and can hit targets more than 300 miles away.
It is also, specialists have found, a Frankenstein-like creation of foreign-sourced components which flies in the face of international sanctions.
Kyiv says the precision-guided weapon, which carries a high-explosive 115kg warhead, has been used in deadly strikes on southern Ukraine, with unofficial reports saying it has been targeting Odesa and Mykolaiv since February.
Uniquely, it is launched by Russia's large Orion drones, meaning Russia does not have to risk tactical aircraft, while its considerable range allows it to strike targets well behind enemy lines. In the future, reports say it will be launched by Mi-28 attack helicopters.
Russia appeared to have produced 'a formidable weapon system' that could give its forces a 'significant advantage on the battlefield', said Vijainder K Thakur, a military analyst and former Indian fighter pilot.
It also represents a significant milestone for Russia – the ability to produce a low-cost missile for mass production.
For example, its SW800Pro jet engine, built by Chinese company Swiwin, is sold through online marketplaces, including China's AliExpress and Alibaba, for £12,000.
But Chinese parts are just the beginning.
By pulling apart downed Banderols, HUR discovered more than 20 key components coming from 30 companies, including from the US, Switzerland, Japan, Australia and South Korea.
The discovery exposes the extent to which foreign technologies, often sourced from Kyiv's backers, have slipped through cracks in sanctions and ended up being fired at Ukraine.
There has been no official Russian confirmation of the Banderol's specifications or operational status, and its development was kept secret until recently.
In February, Moscow reported the first 'successful test flight of a new unmanned aerial vehicle' but offered no technical details.
Ukrainian defence sources suspected it was the Banderol and soon after, reports of an unknown weapon striking Ukraine began to circulate.
In late April, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy of Russia's security council, went to inspect the mystery weapon deep in southern Russia. He nodded his head, appearing impressed, as officials pointed to various design elements.
Credit: X/@OSINTWarfare
The S8000 is developed by the sanctioned Kronstadt Group, a Russian defence enterprise best known for producing the Orion UAVs.
It appears to closely resemble America's joint air-to-surface standoff missile, a cornerstone of US long-range strike capabilities, designed to strike heavily defended targets without having to be launched inside hostile airspace.
Russia's new missile also can make tighter turns than the country's traditional missiles and, according to Ukraine's HUR, has radar-evading technology and onboard anti-jamming systems.
If the Banderol is capable of what Ukraine claims, it could mark the arrival of a new generation of precision-guided, low-cost munitions that pose a significant risk to Ukraine.
But Russia's dependence on foreign components highlights the gaping so-called 'sanctions hole' that allows Russia to circumvent Western sanctions using convoluted supply chains via a third country, including China, Turkey, the UAE and neighbouring former Soviet states.
Russian weapons 'depend on foreign components', HUR wrote alongside its Banderol report. 'Without them, they cannot continue to fight, occupy, and kill.'
A Banderol reportedly contains a US-made motion tracking device, a microcontroller from Switzerland, an Australian-built information exchange model, a battery pack from Japan and a South Korean servo drive.
HUR identified the 'Chip and DIP' network, one of Russia's largest electronics distributors, as a key supplier of many of the foreign components. It is sanctioned by the US and Ukraine, but not by the EU, UK, Japan and Australia.
One of the great advantages of the Banderol missile is its low cost, according to John Hardie, a weapons expert and deputy director of the Russia programme at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
'The name of the game here is increasing Russia's strike depth and capacity to fire missiles in larger numbers,' he told The Telegraph. 'Ukraine is pretty successful at downing Russian missiles, but the more Russia can launch, the more likely they are to get through and the more Ukraine has to expend its limited supply of interceptor missiles.'
According to a 2022 report by the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, more than 450 foreign-made components were discovered in Russian weapons found in Ukraine, with 318 of them made in the US.
'We see the same picture today, often the same culprits,' said Maria Shagina, a senior sanctions researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Russia is both breaking sanctions and exploiting the loopholes. 'It all boils down to diversion, through intermediaries and third countries,' Ms Shagina said, adding that technologies were much harder to track than financial transactions.
The key issue, she said, 'is that Western enforcement of sanctions is poor and the manufacturers must do better due diligence to who they supply. They do not ask the questions they should'.
And when it comes to commercially available, off-the-shelf parts, it was near-impossible to prevent them from being procured by Russia. 'No one can crack down on all procurement networks and all circumvention schemes,' Ms Shagina added.
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