Printed circuit board substrates made by the American corporation Rogers continue to reach Russia, where they are used in the production of military radars and jammers. The Insider and Nordsint have established that the products are being supplied through Chinese intermediaries.
Rogers is an acknowledged world leader among PCB substrate manufacturers. Its materials, known as laminates, are virtually irreplaceable for high-power microwave and millimeter-wave electronics — which are critical for the radars of air defense systems. In conventional drones, Rogers laminate is also considered the preferred material for the communications module. A sheet of high-quality Rogers laminate measuring 30×45 cm can cost up to $1,300. AGC and Isola, two other companies producing comparable products, have been largely absent from the Russian market in recent years, according to customs data.
In 2023, Russians involved in sourcing such products were complaining that Rogers materials had become difficult to obtain in the country. Some companies stopped taking orders for Rogers-based boards due to a shortage of laminates in stock. Engineers were forced to use Chinese alternatives, sometimes of inferior quality.
Rogers laminates have been imported into Russia by EleсTrade-M. Before Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Rogers laminates were also ordered directly from the manufacturer by the official distributor, Adelantest LLC. Adelantest’s customs transactions involving Rogers laminates are no longer visible, yet the company still actively advertises these products, offering them to order (delivery time: three to five weeks). Furthermore, the Adelantest website contains recent 2025—2026 announcements about trade shows attended by Rogers Corporation managers. This suggests that the break between Rogers products and Russia is far from complete. At the very least, Adelantest receives full and timely information about Rogers’ new products and the company’s participation in industry trade shows.
On the Chinese side, the list of recent sellers has included several intermediary firms or small laminate manufacturers: Shenzhen Viafine-Tech, Your Source International, and Jinan Hope Wish Photoelectronic Technology. In Russia, EleсTrade-M carries a wide range of Rogers products in its catalog. Other Russian retailers’ catalogs also list Rogers products. Additionally, the sellers’ websites feature recommendations for Rogers substitutes.
In January, Republican congressman Joe Wilson sent a letter to Rogers management expressing concern about the use of the company’s products in Russian S-400 and S-500 surface-to-air missile systems, as well as in the radar systems of Su-family fighter jets. According to the congressman, Rogers products are being obtained by enterprises of the Russian defense corporation Almaz-Antey. Wilson called on Rogers to prohibit its subsidiaries and distributors worldwide from supplying the company’s products to Russia.
If the Rogers Corporation is able to better monitor its product supply chain, Russian radar manufacturers will be forced to switch to lower-quality Chinese alternatives. The Insider has sent an editorial inquiry to Rogers.
Special circuit boards for military applications
The circuit boards in ordinary consumer electronics are soldered on inexpensive materials such as textolite. Microwave-frequency equipment, such as radars and electronic warfare systems, especially those operating at high power levels, require a special type of board substrate on which the components are mounted. Such a material must have a low dielectric loss factor, high stability of its dielectric parameters (in particular, the dielectric constant must not vary from batch to batch), good thermal conductivity, and mechanical strength. A phased array antenna, for example — a device that controls the direction of a radar beam by managing the phase of individual antennas — can only be assembled on the basis of such a material.
