Ottawa worried Iran using Canadian parts in its drones

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is “extremely concerned” about reports that items produced in Canada may have found their way into Iranian drones that have been used in Russia’s war. Trudeau says the local company is fully cooperating, and that the government is following up on the reports.

Canada has export controls, but somehow items still ended up in the hands of Iran. This follows a report in The Globe and Mail that showed that an antenna manufactured by an Ottawa-based company ended up on the Shahed-136. According to the AFP, “media reported that European think tank Statewatch and authorities in Kyiv found antenna components from Ottawa-based Tallysman Wireless – among 30 parts produced by Western companies – in Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones that are part of Russia’s arsenal.”

The Kyiv Independent noted that “earlier, Ukrainebased NGO Statewatch and Ukrainian civil society group Independent Anti-Corruption Commission published an investigation finding that Iranian-made Shahed drones... consist entirely of foreign-made parts. The NGO identified over 30 EU and American companies whose parts have been used to manufacture Iranian kamikaze drones.”

The story about parts manufactured in the West, or even in places like China, ending up in Iranian drones is only the tip of the iceberg of how Iran has operated a global network intended to get around sanctions and sponge up technology that can aid its military programs. Many of the parts in Iranian drones are items that have a civilian purpose. For instance, small or medium-sized engines, or gyroscopes, chips or other technology, aren’t necessarily military-grade. That means Iran can more easily acquire all these pieces of technology from various sources and then pack them into drones at home.

Much of this went under the radar for years because Iran’s drones were used in the Mideast. Western countries generally don’t care as much if parts manufactured in Europe end up on a drone used by the Houthis. However, when Russia acquired Iranian drones and began using them to target Ukraine a lot more attention was put on where all the parts come from. It now turns out that even though Iran boasts of indigenous production of drones and weapons, there are many parts Iran acquires from all over the world.

Over the last months, it has become clear – mostly because Ukraine has helped shed light on the parts of the downed drones – that a lot are manufactured in the West. This poses a problem for countries that are backing Ukraine. They have to help Ukraine shoot down the drones that are full of Western parts.

Countries like Canada rightly want to understand how their parts are getting to Iran. This is because countries are also sanctioning Iranian drone manufacturers and those companies in Iran that are shipping drones to Russia. Western countries don’t want to sanction their own companies. Also, the companies generally say that they don’t know how the parts got to Iran.

Tallysman has backed Ukraine. According to The Globe, the company’s president Gyles Panther told the paper “Tallysman is 100% committed to supporting Ukraine.”

This will pose a challenge. How do governments like Canada make sure that antennas or chips don’t end up on drones sent by Iran to Russia? What kind of front companies is Iran using and how is it able to procure these items?

Evidence has shown Iran is very inventive in terms of not only getting around sanctions but also reverse engineering or attempting to reverse engineer products and then moving production either to Iran or places like China. The new Iran-China ties will likely increase this cooperation and will enable Iran to wean itself of the need to seek out parts made in the West.