Swiss Part Discovered In Kamikaze Drone – “Shahed” Is Packed With Western Technology 6 Massive Buildings To (Finally) Open In 2023

Hundreds fall in Ukraine causing immense suffering: the Iranian “Shahed 136” type drones, also known as kamikaze drones, fired by Russia.

Last year, the Ukrainian secret services analyzed such a kamikaze drone, and one of the 52 parts examined came from Switzerland. The information comes from a report Ukraine submitted to the US government late last year and is available on CNN.

The remaining components – including semiconductors, GPS modules and motors – were produced by various US companies, as well as by manufacturers from Canada, Japan, Taiwan and China.

The Swiss company is U-Blox from Thalwil. U-Blox is a spin-off of ETH Zurich and has been developing GPS modules and other products since the late 1990s. These are components that can be used for drones, as the “Tages-Anzeiger” writes.

The CNN report does not reveal which U-Blox part was used for the “Shahed 136” drone. U-Blox sells its products mainly to automotive and industrial customers.

CNN contacted all companies based on the report. U-Blox has stated in a statement that its products are for commercial use only. The use of Russian military equipment products “constituted a clear violation of U-Blox’s terms and conditions of sale, which apply to both customers and dealers”.

As the “Tages-Anzeiger” writes, sales of U-Blox to Russia have completely stopped since Russia invaded Ukraine, regardless of how the products are used.

It is not the first time that U-Blox components have turned up in the Ukrainian war zone: last year, the “SonntagsBlick” cited a report by a research group from Great Britain, which found that a Russian Orlan-10 surveillance drone had hit a U-Blox GPS module detected. The drone was found in 2016 in eastern Ukraine.

According to the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (Seco), GPS chips fall under commercial industrial goods. In principle, no license is required for its export. However, exports from Switzerland to Russia have been banned since March 2022, and exports to Iran since 2007. However, if such goods are produced and sold outside Switzerland, they are available worldwide and can therefore also be purchased by Iran and Russia.

The U-Blox GPS modules are not the first Swiss-related elements found in Russian weapons deployed in Ukraine. A study by the British Royal United Services Institute, published in August 2022, identified the company STMicroelectronics. Microcontrollers and transistors from the Geneva-based manufacturer have been discovered in Russian drones and missiles. (first)