Russia expands Alabuga-Volokno plant: jet-powered drone production could rise by 78% – Politico
Russian state-owned company Alabuga-Volokno is expanding its plant in Tatarstan, potentially increasing the production of jet-powered attack drones by 78%.
Source: Brussels-based politics and policy news organisation Politico, citing internal documents from Russian state-owned corporation Rosatom
Details: According to the documents, by 2029 Alabuga-Volokno plans to produce an additional 500 tonnes of military-grade aerospace carbon fibre every year.
Experts estimate that expanding this capacity could enable the production of an additional 28,000 jet-powered drones each year for attacks on Ukrainian cities. Russia is currently capable of producing more than 36,000 Shahed/Geran kamikaze drones per year.
Alabuga-Volokno is a key link in Russia's defence industry supply chain and the country's only producer of carbon fibre, which provides high strength with minimal weight for manufacturing fuselages for long-range drones.
Alabuga-Volokno and its parent company, Rosatom's advanced materials division KhimPromEngineering (Umatex Group), are under sanctions imposed by the UK, the US and many other Western countries.
Rosatom's business plans and project documents have been gathered by the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre (USCC). According to the documents, the company is building a state-of-the-art plant whose main product will be UMT42S-3K carbon fibre for the aerospace industry.
Satellite images from May to July show that land next to the existing plant is already being cleared for new construction.
The US House Select Committee on China and the Ukrainian government examined the internal documents and fully confirmed their authenticity.
Background:
- In September 2025, Alexander Tyunin, the director of KhimPromEngineering (Umatex Group), was found dead in Moscow Oblast. Early reports suggested that he had taken his own life.
- In early September 2026, evidence emerged of secret supplies of raw materials to the Alabuga-Volokno plant from Chinese company Jilin Chemical Fiber Group. Shipments of chemical precursors for carbon fibre were disguised as civilian materials.
- In late September, it became known that underground production facilities for Shahed attack drones were being built in Russia's Alabuga Special Economic Zone. According to an analysis of satellite images, Russia has already built around 42,000 sq m of underground production space.
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