A Chinese state-owned company is involved in setting up a production line to manufacture components for the warheads of 122 mm rocket munitions at a Belarusian state-owned defence enterprise. This follows from contracts, transaction records and meeting minutes that the BELPOL initiative provided to the Japanese outlet Nikkei.
According to the documents, on December 20, 2023, in Beijing, China National Electronics Import & Export Corporation (CEIEC) signed a contract with the Belarusian Republican Unitary Production Enterprise Precision Electromechanics Plant. The subject of the agreement is the design and supply of a production line for “components of warheads for 122 mm rocket projectiles”.
The contract provides for the creation of a line that will carry out one of the key stages of production — the filling of warheads with explosives, including TNT. The value of the agreement is the equivalent of 26.8 million US dollars in Chinese yuan. The Chinese side undertakes to supply equipment and technical documentation, as well as to organise a one-month training programme in China for 15 Belarusian specialists.
The project implementation period is set at 26 months from the date of signing. The documents also provide for the participation of Chinese specialists in the production of 500 pilot units at the Belarusian enterprise, followed by oversight of serial production.
The planned capacity of the new line is up to 120,000 munitions per year. The launch of production is scheduled for the second half of 2026. Minutes of an online meeting dated November 14, 2025 record an agreement to begin installation of the equipment in March 2026 and complete the work in July of the same year.
Separate documents indicate that on October 18, 2023, the plant received a certificate of conformity for casings used to transport fuzes for 122 mm rocket projectiles. The inspection was carried out by a Russian certification body. It is likely that the munitions are intended for export to Russia.
The 122 mm rocket munitions correspond to the specifications of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system and have a range of around 20 kilometres.
The documents were provided to Nikkei by the Belarusian association of former security officials BELPOL. According to the group, the materials were obtained from sources within Belarus’s defence-industrial sector. The package includes contracts, financial records and minutes of working meetings.
CEIEC had previously been under US sanctions imposed in 2020. At the time of publication, the company had not responded to Nikkei’s inquiries. A representative of the Precision Electromechanics Plant told the outlet that the enterprise is “special production” and is not authorised to answer questions.
