An Iranian drone shot down by Ukrainian forces last year contained parts that were manufactured by 13 U.S. companies, according to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment obtained by CNN.
The assessment, shared with government officials late last year, shows what the Biden administration is facing as it attempts to halt Iran's production of drones that Russia is using to attack Ukraine.
Ukrainians removed 52 components from the Iranian Shahed-136 drone; 40 appear to have been made by 13 U.S. companies, the assessment found.
The remaining 12 parts were manufactured by companies in Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and China, according to the report.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told CNN in a statement: "We are looking at ways to target Iranian UAV production through sanctions, export controls, and talking to private companies whose parts have been used in the production. We are assessing further steps we can take in terms of export controls to restrict Iran's access to technologies used in drones."
There is nothing to suggest that any of the companies whose parts were found in the Iranian drone are violating U.S. sanctions laws and knowingly exporting their technology for use in the drones. Experts told CNN that it's difficult for manufacturers to control where their parts end up in the global market, even with increased monitoring.
One problem is that it's easier for Iranian and Russian officials to create shell companies to evade sanctions and purchase the equipment than it is for Western governments to expose them, experts told CNN.
"This is a game of whack-a-mole," former Pentagon official Gregory Allen said. "And the United States government needs to get incredibly good at whack-a-mole, period. This is a core competency of the U.S. national security establishment – or it had better become one."
As Russia continues to deploy drones across Ukraine, targeting infrastructure and civilian areas, the race to stop Iran from building them becomes more urgent. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Ukrainian forces had brought down more than 80 Iranian drones in two days.
According to the Ukrainian assessment, the U.S.-made components found in the drone included nearly 24 parts built by Texas Instruments, including microcontrollers, voltage regulators and digital signal controllers; a GPS module by Hemisphere GNSS; a microprocessor by NXP USA Inc.; and circuit board components by Analog Devices and Onsemi.
Components built by International Rectifier, now owned by the German company Infineon, and Swiss company U-Blox were also discovered.
Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, NXP USA Inc., Onsemi, Infineon and U-Blox told CNN they condemned any unauthorized use of their products and noted they are working to confront the industry-wide challenge.
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