Iranian Attack Drone Contained Dozens Of Parts Made By U.S. Companies

An Iranian attack drone contained dozens of parts made by companies in the United States, CNN exclusively reported.

The drone was shot down over Ukraine last year and examined by Ukrainian intelligence officials. They found the Iranian Shahed-136 drone had 40 components that were manufactured by 13 different American companies. An additional 12 parts were made by companies in Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, and China.

The drone was made by Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Corporation, which has been under U.S. sanctions since 2008.

While the parts, which include semiconductors, GPS modules, and engine components, are sanctioned, there is no evidence that U.S. companies ran afoul of the law.

Experts say that Iran and Russia are able to get the parts in various ways. One way is by creating shell companies to buy the parts. In addition, third-party sellers, which are harder to track, can legally purchase the components and then illegally resell them to companies sanctioned by the U.S.

"This is a game of Whack-a-Mole. And the United States government needs to get incredibly good at Whack-a-Mole, period," said former Pentagon official Gregory Allen, who now serves as Director of the Artificial Intelligence Governance Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "This is a core competency of the U.S. national security establishment – or it had better become one."