The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has published data on 48 enterprises of the holding company “Shvabe,” which is part of the state corporation “Rostec,” and which are involved in the production of military goods.
The information was released on the War&Sanctions portal.
Despite being positioned as a manufacturer of medical equipment, “Shvabe” enterprises are involved in producing a wide range of military products — from strike and reconnaissance UAVs to targeting systems for aircraft and armored vehicles, thermal imaging devices, as well as components for ballistic missiles and guided artillery munitions.
The “Shvabe” structure also includes foreign assets, in particular the Chinese company Shvabe Opto-Electronics Co., Ltd and the Belarusian enterprise “Shvabe (Minsk),” which expand the holding’s access to technologies and component bases.
According to the Intelligence Agency, it is likely that this “medical” cover has allowed a significant number of enterprises to avoid sanctions pressure — 30 of them are still not under restrictions from any country in the sanctions coalition. Among them is the Moscow-based “Sapphire” plant, which produces photodiodes for Iskander-M ballistic missiles and photodetectors for guided artillery shells Krasnopol-M2; the Central Design Bureau “Photon,” which manufactures laser rangefinders and thermal imagers; and “Germanium JSC,” which produces germanium and its compounds used in infrared optics, fiber optics, as well as in the nuclear and radio-electronic industries.
“Shvabe” is the eighth Rostec holding whose structure has been disclosed by the Main Intelligence Directorate. In total, 553 Rostec enterprises involved in supporting Russia’s military capabilities have been identified.
As the Intelligence Agency noted, this case once again confirms that in Russia there is no clear separation between civilian and military production, and any technological enterprise can be integrated into the war machine of aggression.
