russia is firing missiles at Ukraine that have just come off the assembly line – Bloomberg

russian troops have begun firing at Ukraine with newly manufactured missiles as their stockpile of modern weapons is depleted.

Source. Bloomberg

According to the agency, an unexploded missile with an unusually fresh production date was recently discovered in the Sumy region of Ukraine. According to the stamp on the body, the projectile, fired by the Tornado-S multiple launch rocket system, was manufactured on 19 May.

At the same time, according to the Ukrainian non-governmental organization StateWatch, batches of such missiles usually undergo several months of testing before they appear on the front line and are used.

The expiration date of the ammunition was also indicated on the case – 12 September. The extremely short period of time may indicate that russian manufacturers are "cutting corners" to get the missiles to the front line as soon as possible, StateWatch notes.

Since the missile did not explode, the researchers were able to look inside to examine the motherboard and other components. All of them do not correspond to the ready-made certificates, StateWatch experts concluded.

Some parts were soldered by hand, and the components turned out to be russian and American-made, including companies such as Altera, owned by Intel, and Analog Devices.

The Western intelligence official noted that russia's approach to adherence to technical standards was not very strict even before the war against Ukraine, and also recalled that there are other signs of moscow's exhaustion of resources, such as the visit of russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to North Korea, where, according to US intelligence, he asked for more ammunition.

Moreover, as the BBC wrote, citing Western officials, due to sanctions and the inability to purchase microchips, russia has to rely on "low-quality substitutes, such as chips with a 40% reject rate," and in some cases switch to Soviet missile production technologies.