Iran is reportedly helping Russia build a manufacturing facility to mass produce self-detonating drones that use components made by Texas Instruments.

Back in June, the White House said it was aware of Iran’s involvement in helping Russia make its own drone plant. However, documents leaked to The Washington Post reveal previously unknown details about the joint endeavor to churn out a variant of the highly effective Iranian Shahed-136 attack drone.

The facility is located in the Republic of Tatarstan’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone, about 500 miles east of Moscow. The trove of documents reportedly includes factory-floor plans, technical specs, and detailed instructions supplied by Iran to the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

Russia has struggled to find enough skilled workers for the project, resorting to dispatching plant employees to manufacturing centers in Iran to learn from their Iranian counterparts, according to the Post. The goal of the project is to manufacture 6,000 drones in the next two years to bolster the Russian military’s drone fleet, which has reportedly faced shortages.

Though the project is divided into a three-stage plan that is already underway, the leaked documents indicate that Russia is having trouble obtaining critical components that were previously sourced from Western suppliers but are now restricted by sanctions.

Further complicating Russia’s plans is the state of its currency, with the ruble logging a steep decline in value against the U.S. dollar in 2023, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.

An inventory check in the leaked documents shows that over 90% of the drone’s technological components are manufactured in the West, mostly in the United States, including the flight control system made up of 21 electronic components, all manufactured by Dallas-based Texas Instruments, according to the Post.

Other U.S.-based companies that make or distribute components critical to the manufacturing of the drones include Massachusetts-based Analog Devices, California-based AMD, and electronics distributors Mouser and DigiKey.

The documents do not indicate that any of the companies directly supplied Russia or Iran with the components, and none of the components are listed as sensitive technology subject to federal export controls, the Post reported.

Still, the White House told the Post that it is working to impose sanctions on anyone assisting in the transfer of military technology from Iran to Russia.

Despite its setbacks, Russia has lodged itself in parts of Ukraine, establishing significant defensive perimeters in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

As previously reported by The Dallas Express, at least one U.S. official briefed on the current state of the war called the situation “sobering.”

When asked to evaluate the situation from the perspective of Ukraine’s military, retired Army Maj. Mike Lyons told CNN:

“Attacking frontal fortifications reinforced by minefields without air superiority, not a lot of times in history you can show that’s been successful. … They’re not fighting a combined arms fight, they’re not fighting a counteroffensive the way that historically’s shown has been successful. … Without the air superiority, I think this is still going to remain a stalemate.”

Iran’s drone technology has reportedly proven very effective at destroying critical Ukrainian infrastructure, such as power grids and grain stockpiles.

“Those drones are much cheaper to produce compared to the damage they cause, and this is the problem,” Vladyslav Vlasiuk, an advisor to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told the Post.

After analyzing the leaked drone factory plans, experts with the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security told the Post that the 6,000-unit target date is likely too ambitious.

“Alabuga looks to be seeking a drone developmental capability that exceeds Iran’s,” said David Albright, a leading researcher at the institute.