Austrian Drone Motor Exports to Iran and Turkey Temporarily Halted

An Austrian company that sold drone motors to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Turkey has temporarily suspended its exports. It appears that drones equipped with these motors were used in the Azerbaijan-Armenia war.

Austrian company Rotax, a subsidiary of Canadian firm Bombardier, is refraining from shipping drone motors to “countries that do not provide transparency about motor usage” until further notice.

According to Austrian newspaper “Der Standard,” the parent company in Canada made this decision, which Rotax is following.

“Der Standard” named Iran and Turkey in its report. Regarding Iran, the report stated that Rotax-914 motors are used in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “Shahed 129” drone.

The newspaper had previously published a report about the use of Austrian motors in military unmanned aircraft. Canadian media outlets also covered the topic based on this article, which prompted Bombardier to respond.

An Illegal Action?

It is difficult to definitively answer whether sending these motors to countries like Iran or countries engaged in war constitutes an illegal act.

To establish this, it would need to be proven that drones equipped with Rotax motors have military applications. Additionally, the exported motors are only designed for light and very light drones, and government authorization is not necessary for their export. Moreover, the Austrian factory refrains from directly selling them to countries that manufacture their own drones.

For example, the motors sent to Turkey were sold to Ankara by an Italian company.

Notably, in 2013, Austrian newspaper “Die Presse” revealed in an investigative report that the United States used drones equipped with Rotax motors in operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It was after this that Turkey also turned to Rotax motors for its drones in its conflict with the “Kurdistan Workers’ Party” (PKK), a group affiliated with Turkish Kurds.

Source: DW