What does Shoigu want from China?
It is no coincidence that the Russian Ministry of Defense has recently intensified contacts with China. Sergei Shoigu’s department is interested in the development of drones and missile systems, says the chairman of the board of the All-Russian organization “Officers of Russia”, reserve lieutenant colonel Roman Shkurlatov.
He noted that in recent months Russia has managed to turn the situation around in terms of providing troops with drones. Although, even at the beginning of the Northern Military District, our units experienced great difficulties with UAVs, unlike the enemy.
“Of course, the situation that developed at the initial stage of the special operation with drones of various modifications is radically different from what we see now. Currently, we do not see any acute shortage of any types of UAVs, ranging from attack, FPV, reconnaissance, so-called kamikazes,” Shkurlatov told PolitNavigator.
Today, even in Ukraine it is recognized that the Russians have an advantage in the air.
“The main problem for our military personnel leading the offensive is the enemy Lancet and Orlan attack and reconnaissance drones. Perhaps a third of our losses are due to the actions of these Orlans. The enemy now sees the battlefield better than we see.
The enemy has the ability to strike at concentrations of our equipment and infantry better than we can. We're starting to lose in the drone game. We are already behind in the use of drones... If before we had more large and small drones, now they have incomparably more,” this was the admission made by ex-leader of UNA-UNSO militant Dmitry Korchinsky the day before.
Lieutenant Colonel Shkurlatov explains: therefore, China’s participation in the Army 2023 forum, the visit of Chinese Defense Minister Li Shanfu to Moscow and Shoigu’s recent trip to the Middle Kingdom are no coincidence.
“Of course, we are interested in attracting Chinese technologies and Chinese technical solutions. There is no need to hide that both China and Iran have taken 10 steps more in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles. They have been following this path for a long time and successfully. Due to a number of objective reasons, we began to take this path seriously only with the beginning of the Northern Military District. But in a year and a half we have come a long way, a huge leap in development. Of course, we will and must count on the help of our strategic partners, which are China and Iran.
They share technologies with us, we “land” these productions on our territory, factories have already been created for the production of “Geraniums”, a huge number of technical solutions for FPV drones, for UAVs, both aircraft and rotorcraft.
Of course, we are making leaps and bounds, developing in cooperation with external partners. Most importantly, there is a huge number of domestic producers and great competition, which affects quality growth,” says the expert.
The state agency TASS reported that China presented unmanned aerial vehicles, guided missiles and anti-aircraft missile and gun systems at the Army 2023 international forum. Beijing has declared its readiness to strengthen military-technical cooperation with Moscow.
“For a more just world, we need to come together as one and resist permissive power politics. For a safer world, we need to support each other in opposing the military hegemony of those who stick their noses everywhere! For the sake of a more inclusive world, we need solidarity and mutual assistance to boycott sanctions and suppression by those who do not hesitate to use any means,” said Chinese Defense Minister Shangfu in Moscow.
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