Key Points and Summary – In a significant strategic victory, Ukrainian drones appear to have struck deep inside Russia, badly damaging the Signal Radio Plant, a critical factory for military electronics.
-The plant, located 330 miles from Ukraine, is a leading producer of vital Russian electronic warfare (EW) and radar systems.
-The strikes reportedly hit workshops containing expensive, imported machinery that will now be “impossible to replace” due to Western sanctions.
-The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), in a rare admission of responsibility, confirmed the attack is part of a systematic campaign to degrade Russia’s military-industrial capacity.
Ukraine’s Drones Appear to Again Hit Deep Inside Russia
WARSAW, POLAND – Video footage posted on local Russian social media sites shows a Ukrainian drone striking a critical Russian defense industrial site this past weekend.
This factory is responsible for many of Moscow’s most vital defense electronics systems.
What We Know: Ukraine Strikes Again…
The company, known as the Signal Radio Plant, is located in the Stavropol region of Russia and is about 330 miles from Ukraine, demonstrating that the drone warriors in Kyiv continue to be able to hit targets progressively deeper inside Russia’s rear area.
The Signal plant is one of Russia’s leading producers of defense electronic systems, including radar, electronic warfare equipment for front-line aircraft, active jamming systems, remote weapon-control modules, systems for air defense batteries, and other radio-electronic equipment, said an unidentified Ukraine Security Service (SBU) official.
Among the more well-known products the facility manufactures in the electronic warfare category are systems such as Smalta, Gardenia, and Topol-E, which are used on both aircraft and ground vehicles.
“The SBU continues to systematically disable enemy [Russian] facilities working for the war against Ukraine,” the SBU source said. “Each such attack stops production processes and reduces the enemy’s military potential. This work will continue.”
While Ukraine’s cities have been suffering almost constant Russian bombardment, the Ukrainian military has instead concentrated its drone attacks on Russian military targets.
The statement by the SBU is unusual in that Ukraine’s military usually does not claim responsibility for these attacks or offer any other kind of commentary.
Details of the Signal Plant
The attack on the Signal radio plant took place overnight Friday, according to a source in the SBU, which was picked up and reported by the Kyiv Independent.
An official from the SBU told the Reuters news agency that there were two separate facilities at the Signal plant, which were severely damaged in this attack.
The Dnipro OSINT project published images and identified at least three impact sites: two of those strikes were executed using Ukrainian-made An-196 Liutyi drones. In contrast, the third drone used in the attack is unidentified, although its fuselage resembles that of a Shahed-type UAV produced in Ukraine.
The strikes hit the roofs of the plant’s administrative and production buildings, with one impacting the facade of the main administrative facility.
The Kyiv paper also revealed details about the sections of the plant that were damaged and why they were targeted.
According to their sources, the drone attack hit one section that houses expensive imported equipment used in production processes, including computer numerical control machines.
A second drone strike hit another building, which was the central workshop for electronic devices.
The entire facility is sanctioned by Japan, in addition to the EU and the US, which may make purchasing replacement hardware for the equipment destroyed in the attack impossible.
Another pro-Ukraine Telegram channel posted that “the Signal facility includes 7 production workshops, a testing center, and 2 design bureaus.”
Founded in 1971, the Signal plant remains one of the largest defense enterprises in the North-Caucasian Federal District.
It operates as one of the leading enterprises under the Corporation for Radio-Electronic Technology (KRET), which controls and administers many enterprises from the old Soviet-era Ministry of Radio Industry.
Another Case of Sanctions Evasion
The Signal Plant has been under sanctions since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
These sanctions affect it disproportionally because of all the defense enterprises in Russia, it “was probably one of the most dependent on imported foreign components,” said a Ukrainian defense electronics executive who had worked with the plant in the past.
“This company was also utilizing numerous examples of foreign-made machinery and production systems,” he continued. “Those that were destroyed in this attack will be impossible to replace since their import into Russia is now embargoed as well. Imagine what the US military would do if one of Raytheon’s major suppliers was bombed and put out of commission and there was no way to replace that production capacity.”
Sources who spoke to National Security Journal pointed out that the Signal plant had continued to operate for the past three years by acquiring foreign-sourced components in violation of U.S. sanctions regimes.
The company, like so many other Russian enterprises, has found ways to bypass embargoes on the importation of Western components.
Signal has also been involved in identifying and purchasing Chinese electronics to replace other foreign components it still could not acquire illegally.
“As the war continues on, more and more Russian defense sites are becoming dependent on sourcing what they need from China in order to maintain production,” said the Ukrainian defense electronics executive.
About the Author
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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