75% of Russia's Satellite Electronics Come From US

schwit1 writes: One Russian aerospace industry expert noted today that three-quarters of all their satellite electronics comes from the United States: "According to [Nikolay Testoyedov], up to 75 percent of the electronic components for Russian satellites come from the US. Consequently, if it retaliates should Moscow refuse to sell RD-180 rocket motors to Washington — which Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has threatened — Russia's satellite program would be frozen for at least two years. "The imported electronic components in our satellites represent 25 to 75 percent of the total in communications; in military ones, somewhat less; in commercial ones, more," Testoyedov says. Of these imported components, approximately 83-87 percent come from the United States thus giving Washington the whip hand." If we stop providing these electronics he estimates that after their present stock runs out in about a year it would take at least two years before Russia could replace these American-made parts. As the above linked article at The Interpreter mentions, this is relevant in part because of recent talks about U.S. sanctions which could affect this kind of commerce.

Comments

Re:uh, so?

[rtb61]

I think far more unlikely that the current Russian government would want to keep the current arrangement going and far more likely that the US government is desperate to keep it going. The question is whether the US congress and senate are stupid enough to cut of their export nose to spite their imperialist face, probably. In fact it seems pretty certain that the Russian government was expecting sanctions from the get go and rather than be paralysed by them, they have used them to full advantage to promote local industry. Rather than Russians being angry at their own government as a result of the faction, they have taken offence to the companies from the countries which have enacted sanctions and it will cost western corporations billions of dollars in marketing to undo that damage (money that will have to spend in Russia). Of course the US can instead export all that stuff to the Ukraine for billions of more debt, that debt is going to escalate to more than that country is worth is short order.