Russia Reportedly Buries Its Drone Factory Underground
- Russia has begun constructing underground production facilities for Shahed and Geran drones at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan, according to Ukrainian analyst Dnipro Osint, who estimated about 42,000 square meters of underground area has been built.
- The shift underground follows earlier Ukrainian strikes on the Alabuga site, which serves as Russia's primary manufacturing hub for the Geran-2; the facility expanded by 340 hectares between May 2025 and May 2026.
- Satellite images analyzed by Spencer Faragasso of the Institute for Science and International Security identified a two-ring system of lattice towers around Alabuga's production buildings, while analysts reported five new production halls in the southern area on Sept. 14.
- These defensive measures and underground construction make the site progressively harder to target; the United Kingdom sanctioned 35 entities in May 2026, and the facility remains under European Union sanctions.
- The specific claim regarding underground construction comes from a single open-source analyst and has not yet been independently confirmed through separate satellite imagery analysis near Yelabuga.
57 Articles
57 Articles
Russia is preparing for a strong expansion in the production capacity of attack drones used against Ukrainian cities by increasing domestic production of carbon fibre destined for the military industry.
The Russian authorities intend to expand the capacity of the Alabuga-Volokno plant in Tatarstan to produce an additional 500 tons of carbon fibre annually by 2029, writing a European Policy, which estimates that it will produce an additional 28,000 drones each year. Moscow is increasing the domestic production of carbon fibres of the aerospace class in order to reduce dependence on imported components and to produce tens of thousands of drones.
State-owned Rosatom blueprints obtained by Politico reveal factory expansion in Tatarstan – The material needed for drones and concern for Europe
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 37% of the sources lean Left, 37% of the sources lean Right
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
![[Opinion] A Ukrainian drone expert and advisor to Prozorov, Sergei "Flash" Beskrestnov, stated that Russia is capable of significantly increasing the precision of its attacks on Ukrainian territory and striking targets further inland..](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgrnd.b-cdn.net%2Finterests%2F02de249ebdaf835c58aa7d21fdeefafa44207262.jpg&w=1440&q=75)
