They are often manufactured using American components.
As Bloomberg reports, Iran’s adoption of relatively low-tech drone warfare tactics poses new risks for stability in the Middle East.
Moreover, Iran also earns foreign currency to fund its defense industry and strengthens strategic alliances through sales. Drones have turned Tehran into a formidable arms dealer, capable of altering the nature of conflicts worldwide.
Sanctions first imposed against Iran 45 years ago have not weakened the country’s military production, the publication notes. Some experts even believe that economic isolation forces Iranian specialists to be more inventive, enhancing the efficiency and stealth of their drones.
Iranian experts also continually upgrade their drones, including drawing on Russian experiences in Ukraine. Iranian analysts have traveled to Russia to study the successes of the “Shahed-136” to further refine their evasion tactics.
“The past two years have been a period of hyper-acceleration in new tactics and methods of UAV deployment by Iran. Russia and Iran learn from each other. This is almost as significant as the technology exchange itself,” says Matthew McInnis, a Pentagon intelligence officer.
Iran relies on any electronic components it can purchase from Asian suppliers or smuggle from the US and Europe. An analysis of the wreckage of Shahed-136 showed that nearly every part had American or European origins. The communication chip was from Analog Devices Inc. of Massachusetts. The microcontroller was from Texas Instruments Inc. of Dallas.
