Shahed drones
Despite international sanctions against Iran, clamed to be made of commercial parts from companies headquartered in the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Poland.
[5] [2] Due to their commercial availability, the components are poorly regulated or uncontrolled,[2][6] and according to a Ukrainian report submitted to the G7, the parts are imported to Iran from Turkey, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Costa Rica.
[2] Allegedly, every drone manufactory plant in Iran has two replacement sites to ensure production is not disrupted in the event of an aerial attack.
[7] On 5 December 2011, the Iranian government seized an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel UAV, which had been commandeered and brought down by Iran's cyberwarfare unit.
"[10] Months earlier, Sky News received purported document evidence dated 14 September 2022 from an informed source that Russia had purchased over US$1 million of artillery and tank shells and rockets.
[11] In June 2023, a U.S. intelligence finding released by the White House reported Iran was supplying Russia with materials to construct a drone manufacturing plant.
[7] According to the document submitted to the G7, the Iranian government is trying to "disassociate itself from providing Russia with weapons" and that "[it] cannot cope with Russian demand and the intensity of use in Ukraine.
"[2] Consequently, the Yelabuga drone factory was established in Alabuga Special Economic Zone, part of the Republic of Tatarstan, an autonomous region of Russia, more than 1,300 km (810 mi) from the Russia–Ukraine border.
[7][13] The manufactory is next to the Kama River, permitting transportation by ship directly from Iran via the Caspian Sea,[7] and is operated by the company Albatross, which employs students as young as 15 years-old from Alabuga Polytechnic College to construct the combat drones.
[14] Russia aims to build 6,000 UCAVs by summer 2025[15] at a rate of 310 drones per month if the factory operates 24 hours a day, predicting the cost of production of one Geran-2 to be US$48,000.
The flight of Shahed 121 was considered by Iranian authorities to be safe as its wings were all "clean", implying that the drone did not carry weapons and was not dangerous to ships, but the high command of the US Navy described it as "abnormal" and "unprofessional.
[7] The drones were used in the October 2022 missile strikes on Kyiv[35] The Shahed 147 is a twin-boom, high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) surveillance UAV powered by a turboprop engine.
[43] The Shahed 171 Simorgh, named after a benevolent bird of Persian mythology,[44] and called IRN-170 by the US government,[45] is a jet-powered flying wing UCAV.
[50][51] The new drone was publicly unveiled in November 2023 during an aerospace achievement exhibition organized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was attended by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
[54] Due to the new engine, compared to the HESA Shahed 136, there is less space available for fuel, presumably resulting in a reduced flight range and payload size.
The company highlighted that such claims are part of deliberate efforts to damage PBS's credibility, as it actively supplies engines for Ukraine's defense.
