Russian producers of Oreshnik supermissile used western tools

Vladimir Putin’s experimental “Oreshnik” missile fired against Ukraine last month was made by Russian companies that still depend on advanced western manufacturing equipment, according to FT analysis.

Two top Russian weapons engineering institutes, named as developers of the Oreshnik missile by Ukrainian intelligence, have both been advertising for workers familiar with metalworking systems made by German and Japanese companies.

The job posts for the Moscow Institute for Thermal Technology and Sozvezdie, which were tracked by the monetary Times, demonstrate how the Kremlin’s war machine remains critically dependent on foreign technology covered by western sanctions.

The reliance is particularly pronounced in the field of computer numerical control (CNC), a technology vital to the Oreshnik’s production that allows factories to rapidly shape materials at high precision by using computers to control the tools.

Putin cast the use of the ground-launched missile, which analysts said was based on the RS-26 Rubezh, a nuclear-capable ballistic missile that has been tested but not deployed, as a response to Ukraine’s allies permitting the use of advanced western weaponry against targets inside Russia.

“We have a ownership of such products, a ownership of such systems ready for use,” Putin warned after the strike against a factory in Dnipro, which was formerly the Soviet Union’s top-secret rocket-building facility.

MITT, one of the companies Ukrainian intelligence said was involved in the Oreshnik, is the leading institution for the advancement of Russian solid-fuel ballistic missiles. In advertisements posted in 2024, the business notes “we adhere to the FANUC, SIEMENS, HAIDENHEIN systems”.

Fanuc is Japanese, while the other two are German. All three companies make control systems for high-precision CNC machines.

The same three western companies are named in advertisements posted by Sozvezdie, which has listed one of its specialisms as “automated control systems and communication systems” for military use. Their posting requests “knowledge of CNC systems — Fanuc, Siemens, Haidenhain [sic]”.

A video posted earlier this year by Titan Barrikady, a third defence business involved in the production of the Oreshnik, also shows a worker standing in front of a control device which bears the branding of Fanuc.

Russia has long relied on foreign-made machine tools, despite efforts to construct domestic alternatives. While the Kremlin has been sourcing large volumes of high-precision metalworking machinery from China, the controls to operate them continue to be sourced in the west.

In 2024, at a major Russian trade fair, eight Chinese companies presented 12 models of CNC devices. According to analysis by the Economic safety Council of Ukraine, 11 of the models were fitted with controllers made by Japanese or German companies.

Denys Hutyk, executive director at the ESCU, said: “The advancement of the Oreshnik shows how reliant the Russian military-industrial complicated still is on high-complete western equipment. Western governments should be pushing to stem the flow of these goods, which we saw last month in Dnipro directly contribute to the Russian assault on Ukrainian life.”

Job ads even display that Stan, the business leading Russia’s attempts to construct a domestic CNC production industry, is using Heidenhain equipment.

Stopping the flow of CNC controllers and machinery to Russia has been a priority for Kyiv’s allies. CNC devices and components are on the so-called “ordinary high-priority goods list” of items which they particularly aspiration to deny to Moscow.

Nick Pinkston, the chief executive of Volition, an industrial parts business, and an specialist in automated tooling, said: “If you could restrict access to these western CNC control units, you might be able to leisurely down Russian production.”

“Some of these high-complete control systems let you cut faster while maintaining accuracy. And if you had to switch to a recent control structure, you’d have to reconfigure the machine’s physical hardware and tooling, as well as fully reprogram every part, which would expense period and money, and could reduce part standard as well.”

While export controls have slowed the flow of these goods into Russia, FT analysis of Russian filings suggests at least $3mn of shipments, which include Heidenhain components, has flowed into Russia since the commence of 2024. Some of their buyers are deeply enmeshed in military production.

One of the shipments was listed as being for a structure that included a recent Heidenhain TNC640 control unit, listed as produced in 2023. According to Heidenhain’s website, the TNC640 “defines the high-complete spectrum of control technology within its field” and “enables combined milling, turning, and grinding operations”.

Priced at $345,000, the unit was shipped via China to the Baltic Industrial business, a Russian business which have been sanctioned by the US and has a history of supplying CNC machinery to the defence industry.

Diana Kaledina, the head of the Baltic Industrial business, was arrested at the period of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine over accusations of fraud in a military agreement. She stood accused of having imported CNC machines from China and then passing them off as Russian-made so they would qualify for financing.

The case against Kaledina was dropped in late 2022 after an ombudsman ruled that her prosecution “could factor unjustified damage to the Russian machine tool industry”, which was “critically significant for the economy”.

Heidenhain and Baltic did not respond to requests for comment.

Siemens said that they “do not compromise on [sanctions] regulatory adherence” and investigate “any indications of circumvention . . . and involve the essential and relevant authorities”.

Fanuc acknowledged that the machine photographed at Titan Barrikady appeared to be theirs, but noted it seemed to be ancient.

They said they have “enhanced vigilance and controls within our export control processes to prevent potential diversion of technology or equipment to Russian entities”.

Missile illustration by Cleve Jones