CAR investigators have discovered conclusive evidence that confirms the identity of the producer behind the engines used in Iranian Shahed-136 UAVs.🧵(1/7)

Investigators have long suggested that the Iran-based Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company (‘Mado’) was the manufacturer, weren’t able to publicly prove it because of an absence of unique identifying markings. (2/7)

CAR investigators documenting Shahed-136 UAVs in Ukraine in January 2023 observed these Mado-brand markings on the spark plug caps of two of the engines. (3/7)

Cabling within the engines also bore ‘550’ markings, probably a reference to Mado’s own model designation for the Shahed-136 engine- the MD-550. These markings had not previously been reported on engines recovered from Iranian drones in Saudi Arabia in 2019, or in Ukraine. (4/7)

The engines and sub-components each typically feature eight-digit serial numbers in the format ‘100XXXXX’. The same pattern was also recently observed by UN investigators on turbojet engines recovered from Quds-2 cruise missiles following Houthi attacks in UAE. (5/7)

Efforts to trace the supply chains of foreign produced engine components such as carburettors have previously been hindered as original serial numbers and other markings were obliterated, and in some cases new serial numbers were applied. (6/7)

Despite efforts by the suppliers of Iranian UAVs deployed in Ukraine to undermine the tracing of the supply chains of foreign components used in the systems’ engines, CAR’s findings prove that the engines are manufactured by Mado. (7/7)

Read the report: conflictarm.org/identityofIraniandroneenginemaker