In December 2022 – just a few months after the Russian Federation began to use Iranian uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the conflict in Ukraine – the European Union, United Kingdom, and United States all announced sanctions against the Iran-based Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company (Mado). The sanction listings state that Mado supplies engines for use in Iranian military UAVs, including the Shahed-series single-use UAVs used in Russian attacks against critical infrastructure in Ukraine.

Investigators have been gathering a  growing body of evidence  that has long suggested that Mado had manufactured engines used in UAV attacks in Saudi Arabia in 2019 and in Ukraine in 2022. However, an absence of unique identifying marks previously precluded a decisive determination of the source. In this Dispatch, CAR presents new evidence that conclusively shows, for the first time in the public domain, that Mado is indeed the producer of engines found in Shahed-136 UAVs in Ukraine.

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Read the full report on the Conflict Armament Research website.