In early November 2022, a @conflictarm team had access to 1x Shahed-131, 2x Shahed-136, and 1x Mohajer-6 UAVs used by Russia in Ukraine. Here’s what we found in them: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7a3941…
Through visual comparison with four other UAV models documented in 2017-2022 in the Middle East, @conflictarm confirms that the Shahed-131, Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 UAVs used by Russia in Ukraine were made in Iran. Image
The @conflictarm team could also document a Qaem-5 precision-guided munition, with a May 2022 date of manufacture, indicating Iran has carried out at least some supplies since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Image
The Shahed-131, Shahed-136, and Mohajer-6 UAVs were made almost exclusively of recently produced non-Iranian parts. Most of the components for which @conflictarm could identify a date of manufacture were made in 2020-2021. Image
We found that 70 different manufacturers from 13 different countries produced the components @conflictarm documented in the Shahed-131, Shahed-136, and Mohajer-6 UAVs. 82% of the components were made by US-based companies (yes, 82%).
This report demonstrates that Iran has been able to circumvent current sanctions to get the higher-end tech it needed to build these single-use UAVs (Shahed-131 and -136). The @nytimes discusses it here: nytimes.com/2022/11/22/us/…
The new report by @conflictarm on Iranian UAVs used by Russia in Ukraine shows that Iran, like Russia, is highly dependent on foreign components to produce weapons. Documenting these components and investigating their chains of supply is essential to avoid future diversions. Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Damien Spleeters

Damien Spleeters Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @damspleet

Sep 4
In July 2022, @conflictarm returned to #Ukraine to continue to document components of Russian weapons. There, we made an interesting discovery. Follow along... 1/19
We documented parts of the SN-99 satellite navigation systems of three different Russian cruise missiles: the 3M14, the Kh-59, and the Kh-101 2/19
We had already documented the satellite navigation system of a 9M544 rocket back in May 2022, and it looked exactly the same 3/19
Read 19 tweets
Jul 19
A @conflictarm team just returned from #Ukraine, where we saw some pretty recently introduced systems. Here's a short thread showing a couple of them 🧵 1/
We saw a Merlin-VR (Мерлин-ВР) UAV, which seems to have been first reported on in late September 2021 web.archive.org/web/2021092822… 2/ Image
We also saw a Lastochka-M (Ласточка-М) UAV, which was also seen in late September 2021 during the Zapad exercises tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/1… Image
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(