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Forging ahead: Russia sidesteps sanctions to import Austrian machinery [via Spain] for making howitzer barrels (theins.ru)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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A Spanish company has supplied Russia with an Austrian radial forging machine. [...] Russia’s production of artillery barrels relies entirely on this type of equipment. Howitzer barrels wear out frequently and must be replaced, and the precision required for their manufacture can only be achieved on machines Russia is unable to produce itself.

Forward Technical Trade SL, a Barcelona-based company with a sole shareholder, David Candela Sauri, delivered a used CNC forging machine — manufactured in 1983 by the Austrian firm Gesellschaft für Fertigungstechnik und Maschinenbau (GFM) — to AZK Group LLC in Izhevsk. The machine is valued at approximately $1.3 million and weighs 110 tons, according to documentation.

The deal came to light through court records: Izhevsk-based AZK Group was disputing a customs classification, arguing that the machine was a rotary forging press, while Russian customs officials claimed it was a radial forging press. According to Russia’s company register (EGRUL), AZK Group’s revenue has experienced manifold growth since the start of the full-scale war.

Spanish company Forward Technical Trade SL has no website. The point of origin for the shipment of the CNC forging machine in question is listed as the city of Albacete. The delivery was carried out under the name of a Hong Kong–based company, Scorpion’s Holding Group Limited. In Russia, the shipment was processed by the Nizhny Novgorod customs office.

Austrian manufacturer GFM previously told The Insider that, “We have never had any business relationship or contact with Forward Technical Trade S.L.U. or Scorpion’s Holding Group Limited.”

[...]

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This machine resulted in the unnecessary deaths of countless Ukrainians, the businesses and more importantly the people responsible should be criminally charged or punished through economic sanctions to the highest degree possible full stop.

Historians will write about a willfully indulged fantasy that howitzers were obsolete during this war that resulted in a stalemate occurring where Russia could not win despite its massive artillery advantage at the outset and up until recently Ukraine was specifically not being supplied anywhere enough artillery ammunition for some reason.....

This needs to be investigated from many different angles and this isn't some Russian conspiracy, I am sure there is that involved don't get me wrong but no this was a much more base desire to profit off of war while holding the means to decisively stop said war at bay from a country of people trying to defend themselves. Also throw in a heap of techbro idiots who represent a long tradition of fools who are smart at things that aren't war (or even logistics?) believing they have found the secret to fundamentally change the basics of armored combined arms warfare that has been shown to be brutally effective over and over again throughout the 20th and 21st century... and you get a very disturbing picture.

155mm howitizers are not a new technology, but the west seems to have magically remembered all of a sudden how important they are... after Ukraine already figured out how to produce it themselves with a minimal amount of help from a country or two like Denmark (thank goodness they did!).

Hold the people that enabled this accountable, it is vitally important to the security of your homes and to an internationally shared desire (clearly not by the leaders in power, but decisively by the obvious expressed desire of normal people all over the planet) for peace rather than war.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Holding people who enabled this accountable won’t fix the core issue, there’s always gonna be someone in the whole EU wanting to make the same thing, even if you cut one of the hydra’s heads. Better to work on improving the mechanisms of detecting the operations between the Russian companies instead

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Imagine getting caught for this because you challenge a tax.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Can I have a howitzer barrel?

this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
67 points (95.9% liked)

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