Russia’s Homegrown Kinzhal Electronics Fell Short—American Chips Are Back Inside

Russia has returned to using American processors in its Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles after domestically produced substitutes apparently failed to meet requirements, Ukraine’s presidential sanctions commissioner Vladyslav Vlasiuk told Militarnyi on September 8.

Specialists examining the Zarya-61 onboard computer recovered from a Kinzhal intercepted in May found processors manufactured by US semiconductor company Texas Instruments.

The discovery is particularly notable because Russian engineers had already attempted to replace those components with domestically produced microchips in 2023.

In the newer Zarya-61 recovered this year, however, those Russian substitutes were gone. Texas Instruments processors had returned, suggesting the domestic replacements did not provide the performance or reliability required for the missile’s electronics.

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The findings provide another example of Russia’s continued dependence on foreign semiconductor technology despite years of efforts to localize production and Western restrictions intended to limit Moscow’s access to advanced electronics.

According to Militarnyi, investigators found an even stranger mix of components inside another Russian missile.

Debris from an Iskander contained an electronic board fitted with AMD chips manufactured as far back as 1996, along with a Texas Instruments processor carrying a 1986 marking.

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The age and variety of the components illustrate the increasingly fragmented supply chains Russia appears to rely on to sustain missile production.

“It has to combine its own component base with foreign components, while searching for them across different markets and through different supply chains,” Vlasiuk said.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence identified 155 Russian enterprises linked to producing electronic components and technologies used across Russia’s weapons systems, including Iskander-M ballistic and Zircon hypersonic missiles.

In addition, Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy chief of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, recently reported that Russia has increased its ballistic missile output, primarily by halting production of Kh-47 Kinzhal missiles.

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