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The main manufacturer of barrel artillery systems in Russia, Plant No. 9, has received European machine tools to expand production.
Frontelligence Insight, in collaboration with the Dallas analytical company, obtained and analyzed Russian procurement documents related to Plant No. 9.
This plant manufactures artillery barrels and tank guns.
It also manufactures the RBU-1000 and RBU-6000 naval rocket depth-bomb launchers and is the original developer of the Soviet D-30 howitzer.
Despite sanctions, the plant has been continuously modernized since at least 2016.
As of April 2025, the contractor Zenit-Investprom had prepared and submitted updated design documentation to the plant, which Frontelligence Insight was able to obtain.
- “We have concluded that Russia is expanding its production capacity and modernizing equipment at the plant, a process that would be impossible without access to Western equipment and technology,” analysts state.
Despite a decade-long import substitution strategy, Russia has not achieved complete independence from foreign equipment imports. Almost all critical production stages at Plant No. 9, not just auxiliary processes, still depend on high-precision machine tools from Europe and East Asia.
Plant No. 9 is located in the Uralmash industrial zone, a major heavy-industry center in Yekaterinburg, where both civilian and military production facilities have historically operated.
Satellite images reveal six facilities, including two metalworking shops and an electroplating production.
The reconstruction of this workshop aims to create an integrated production facility for the serial manufacture of components and assemblies for the 152 mm 2A88 artillery system used in the 2S35 Koalitsiya self-propelled howitzer.
The facility consists of two workshops:
The word “Armata” also appears in the documentation, with an entire section of the workshop devoted to it.
“We estimate that references to Armata in this context most likely relate to the production of fire control systems or guns/barrels, originally created for Armata, and later redirected to other vehicles,” analysts explain.
The key conclusion of the analysis is that this expansion, like its previous stages, would have been impossible without Western equipment.
Almost all critical elements of production and reconstruction depend on modern high-precision industrial equipment, mostly from Europe and Taiwan.
This is not about small components or dual-use electronics repurposed for military purposes. Expansion requires large-scale industrial equipment, which is inherently easier to track and regulate.
Below is a list of equipment by country of origin and manufacturer:
In total, Russia plans to supply and install at least 22 large industrial machines at the modernized facility, including gear cutting, milling, and multifunctional machines.
The documents also indicate that this is not a one-time upgrade, but part of a long-term process of expanding and improving production, which is now being accelerated by the war.
For example, in a series of 2014 letters to the director of the Basic Industries Department of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, the head of Plant No. 9 requested an expert assessment confirming that certain production equipment could not be manufactured in Russia and would need to be imported.
These letters concerned the purchase of APC 24S-NC equipment from the Taiwanese company Glory and the German LFS 1200 system.
In January, Militarnyi also received Russian procurement documents that detail ammunition production and costs.
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