Russia is kickstarting its plans to dominate the space race once again — but it will have to depend on Chinese…
- Chinese equipment fills critical roles, though it represents only a small share overall
- Russia plans to quadruple annual Angara rocket production within the next decade
- Internal documents expose extensive factory upgrades supporting future rocket manufacturing
Russia is pushing to significantly grow production of its Angara space rockets, to quadruple annual output within the next decade.
Internal planning documents obtained by researchers show the expansion depends heavily on imported machine tools, and most of them are Chinese-made.
That dependence stretches across shop floors that Russia will need to modernize before it can build four rockets a year instead of one.
Counting the Chinese machines
Of the 541 pieces of equipment listed in the procurement plan, 477 are Russian-made, and only 57 come from Chinese suppliers.
Two more machines came from Bulgaria, leaving the Chinese share of the total list at roughly 10.5%, a modest slice on paper.
That number changes sharply...
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