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Construction is underway in Omsk, Russia, on a new plant designed to manufacture “Angara” launch vehicles. Russia is purchasing equipment for this facility from manufacturers in China, Taiwan, and Japan. This is according to an investigation by Dallas Analytics.
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As journalists have discovered, Russia will not be able to rapidly ramp up production of the “Angara” rockets – which are used exclusively for the Russian Ministry of Defense – without large-scale imports of high-tech equipment.
According to open-source data, the Russian Ministry of Defense is the sole customer for the “Angara” rockets. Until mid-2025, information about their payloads remained public. For the most part, these launch vehicles placed “Kosmos” series spacecraft into orbit – this is how the Russian Federation designates military satellites for various purposes.
Experts note that the Angara is also used to launch Rodnik (“Strela-3M”) military communications satellites. During the April launch, four such satellites were placed into orbit: “Kosmos-2615,” “Kosmos-2616,” “Kosmos-2617,” and “Kosmos-2618.”
Documents obtained by journalists from Russia’s leading space rocket developer, JSC Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, indicate that a significant portion of the necessary equipment comes from Chinese suppliers, some of whom may be concealing the country of origin of their products.
The documents reveal the company’s current status and plans to relocate production. Currently, the Khrunichev Center produces only one “Angara-1.2”-class rocket per year. Once the project is implemented, this figure is expected to increase to four rockets annually.
In total, the plan is to purchase 541 pieces of equipment for the Omsk plant, totaling over $46 million. Eighty-four percent of this budget will be allocated to core technology, with the remainder going toward furniture and shelving. The Khrunichev Center plans to purchase nearly $10 million worth of equipment from Chinese suppliers.
The investigation highlights the questionable origin of many of the machine tools:
- VERIA SEIKI: Russia plans to purchase two CNC machine tools of this brand for $1.2 million. There is no information about the manufacturer or product catalogs in open sources, and the model designation VC52-500SMCY is typical for many brands
- DYNO SEIKI: Documents from the Khrunichev Center list two gantry machining centers worth over $1.2 million. In Russia, they are marketed as Taiwanese through the company Weber Komekanics, which created a separate website for them
- Goodway, AWEA, and YAMA SEIKI: Weber Comomechanics was previously known as a supplier of Taiwanese Goodway machine tools (part of an industrial conglomerate that also includes AWEA, Extron, and YAMA SEIKI). It is under the AWEA and YAMA SEIKI brands that the VP-2012 machine, mentioned in the Russian documentation, is manufactured.
Sodick: The AL-40Gs machine is identified in the documents as Chinese. In reality, Sodick is a Japanese manufacturer that simply has production facilities in China.
Dallas Analytics has already sent official requests for comment to all companies mentioned in the investigation.
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