Ukrainian intelligence analyzed the contents of one of the Iranian drones that Russia used to hit our state. This became possible after our military shot down a drone in the fall of 2022.
The analysis found parts manufactured by at least 13 companies located in the United States. This proves that Iran, despite the sanctions, finds an opportunity to buy commercially available technologies.
What Iran builds its drones out of
Of the 52 components that the Ukrainians seized from the drone, 40 were manufactured by 13 different American companies, the rest were made by companies in Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and China.
This demonstrates that sanctioned Iranian companies are likely to be successfully circumventing efforts to cut off supplies of critical components and electronics to them.
After all, the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Corporation, which has been under US sanctions since 2008, still managed to create a drone shot down in Ukraine.
According to the publication, Ukraine at the end of 2022 transferred to the United States data on American components in Iranian drones.
What is known about the companies whose parts were in the Iranian drone
According to Ukrainian intelligence, almost 20 parts that were in the Iranian drone were manufactured by Texas Instruments. This is about:
- voltage stabilizer microcontrollers and digital signal controllers;
- GPS module manufactured by Hemisphere GNSS;
- microprocessors manufactured by NXP USA Inc;
- printed circuit board components manufactured by Analog Devices and Onsemi.
Also revealed the manufactured components:
- International Rectifier, owned by the German company Infineon;
- Swiss U-Blox.
The publication explained that it sent requests to all the companies that our intelligence named. In response, they assured that:
- condemn the unauthorized use of their products;
- combating the diversion and misuse of their semiconductors and other microelectronics is an industry-wide problem;
- they are working to resolve it.
It should be noted that Texas Instruments stated that they do not sell parts to Iran, Russia or Belarus and comply with the law and cooperate with law enforcement officers if necessary.
What is known about Iranian drones in Ukraine
- Russia is secretly buying drones from Iran to attack Ukraine. After all, this is a weapon that the Kremlin can still buy and use against our state.
- Literally on December 19, Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Moscow had received a new batch of Shaheeds from Tehran. According to the president, it was said about 250 pieces.
- Moreover, back in November 2022, The Washington Post claimed that the Kremlin and Iran had secretly entered into an agreement to produce drones.
- Already in January 2023, the US State Department announced that they were discussing together with Israel how to prevent Iran from supplying Shahids to the Kremlin.
