Sanctions? The Mystery of a Canadian Company's Aircraft Engines in Iranian Drones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Rotar engine found in Iranian  Mohajer-6 drone found in Ukraine    via Twitter

 

"We are deeply concerned and are taking this situation very seriously."

"We have already started an investigation into this matter to attempt to determine the source of the engines."

"[BRP's internal controls strictly limit use of its products for defence purposes. And it has not supplied any engines to Iran since 2019] and none will be sold moving forward."

Biliana Necheva spokeswoman, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP)

An Iranian Mohajer-6 military drone was shot down by Ukrainian forces and shown off in a CNN broadcast last month. A logo of Quebec-based Bombardier Recreational Products was visible in photographs of the wreckage. Photo by Iranian Army/West Asia News Agency Handout via Reuters/File

But its very special motors do get around by whatever means. Either initially sold for civil use or products changing hands through an intermediate buyer. Although the company does bring up the possibility of theft. Its engines, however much the company claims it is acutely aware and prevents their product use for military purposes, it became known that Turkey's Rotax-powered Bayraktar TB-2 drones were used to target Armenian forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

 

Now, for the second time in a two-year period, its aircraft engines have been seen used in Iranian military drones, one of which at least had been flown by the Russian military in its 'special military operation' in Ukraine. The company is also investigating a number of reports of thefts of the engine. There is as well the matter of its Austrian subsidiary Rotax permitting a Tehran-based engine maintenance and overhaul company to bill itself as Iran's official representative for Rotas aviation engines.

 

Its product, stressed BRP, is designed for light civilian aircraft and not military vehicles. The company is, after all, the well-known producer of Sea-Doos and Ski-Doos along with other vehicles of a strictly recreational purpose. Clearly, the motors are sufficiently versatile as to lend themselves to a number of uses, and from the available evidence so concerning now to BRP, for military purposes. 

A British defence analyst recently identified through a photograph, a unique marine drone 's Sea-Doo jet skis, when the autonomous vessel washed ashore in Crimea and was recovered by Russia. Another Canadian company had its target-finding cameras installed in the Turkish Bayraktar aircraft. It's more or less a whack-a-mole game in that those Turkish drones are now being used by Ukraine.

Russia had been supplied by Iran with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are being used in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine; sold they claim, prior to the beginning of the war. It is the Shahed-136 kamikaze drone being used in the Russian bombardment of Ukraine's electrical and water systems, leaving millions of Ukraines across the country with limited access to both power and potable water.

The Mohajer-5 model used for surveillance and missile firing was seen to be equipped with the Rotax engine; shot down by Ukrainian forces -- with the company logo prominently on display in photographs of a Rotax 912 engine. In another Mohajer-5 brought down by Kurdish forces in Iraq last month, the same part was identified.

The aircraft engines distinguished by their light weight and fuel efficiency are used primarily for civilian craft but there is a history of defence applications as well as when the U.S. Predator -- the pioneer of modern drone warfare -- was driven by a Rotax 914 engine. An odd string of thefts of over 150 of the BRP-Rotax engines date back to 1995; most pilfered from airfields in the U.K. and Europe. 

And that business in Tehran, Mahtabal, whose website identifies the firm as an "aviation engine repair and overhaul organization" identifying itself as "the official representative of Rotax air engines in Iran"? Photographs of a series of Rotax engines are featured on the site's home page despite that it does not actually sell them.