The U.K. has directed a special intelligence unit to investigate if stolen Rotax 900-series engines are turning up in Iranian drones. The Rotax mothership, the Austrian-based Bombardier Recreational Products, has taken note of the thefts and launched its own investigation. In a brief statement, the company said, “BRP has not authorized and has not given any authorization to its distributors to supply military UAV manufacturers in Iran or Russia.”
With drones playing an increasingly critical role in the war in Ukraine, an Iranian Mohajer-6 drone shot down over the Black Sea in October 2022 was recently recovered powered by a Rotax 912. CNN reported on the aircraft in this video. The Mohajer-6 is a MALE class-drone—medium altitude, long endurance. With a 32-foot wingspan and 24-foot length, it’s about the size of a Cessna 150. Its maximum weight is 1475 pounds with an endurance of 12 hours. It’s capable of long-endurance reconnaissance and can be armed with air-to-ground missiles.
The mystery is where the engines are coming from. According to Rotax, at least 130 of its 912 and 914 engines have been stolen worldwide between 2000 and 2021. At least 36 were stolen from aircraft in the U.K. and Rotax’s list cites six thefts in the U.S., including two recent ones in Florida and California. The majority of thefts occurred as long as a decade ago. The British Microlight Aircraft Association and the Light Aircraft Association are collecting information about the thefts. The U.K.’s Operation Opal, an intelligence team aimed at organized crime, is investigating the thefts.
Although Rotax has manufacturing facilities in China and Mexico, it’s believed that all of the genuine 900-series engines are built in its Gunskirchen, Austria, plant. AVweb reported on this factory in this video. It’s not known if China is capable of counterfeiting the 900-series engines and if so, why these would carry what appear to be original Rotax placards.
Let the UK investigate itself first, like how the hell can such large items for military intentions be so easlily moved around and out of the UK. Makes you think of what else has been taken and shipped out of the UK while the UK has not noticed for decades. That’s embarrassing.
More like Bull Shit.
Sorry, but are you serious?! Half the cars stolen in the UK are in a container and on the high seas with 48 hours of being stolen and that’s 50 thousand cars annually very few of which are ever seen again (in the UK anyway). Cars are 50 times the size of a Rotax… an engine intended for recreational use regularly stored at relatively remote and often un-supervised airfields all over the country many of which don’t even have CCTV!! Get real!!!
Airplanes are at airports. People are sawing off airplane engines at supposedly secure airport property in the UK and no one notices or trackes them down? Get real, this is not the theft of a Golf from a carpark.
Large items? Ha, a Rotax isn’t very large, and driving or flying or shipping it out of the country would be trivial.
Stolen Rotax 900 series engines have been news in the French microlight community for years. Relatively few were resold, or attempts made to resell them in the country, the gendarmes and microlight websites published serial numbers quickly and attempts to sell parts over the web led to one or two arrests.
So the question was “where did they go”? Romania was thought to be the main receiver, along with stolen outboard boat engines, taken from oyster farms — a couple of gangs were caught in the act in the oyster sheds, leading to a reduction in thefts of outboards, tractors, tractor GPS systems (more sought after than the tractors apparently) and ultra light engines.
The relatively light powerful Rotax engines have apparently been seen used for all sorts of farm use there.
But they could well have gone across the Black Sea to Turkey and then into Iran.
“It’s not known if China is capable of counterfeiting the 900-series engines and if so, why these would carry what appear to be original Rotax placards.”
HA! That’s what China does best!
That’s exactly what I was thinking. As for why they would carry “original” placards, that’s easy: If one is secretly manufacturing counterfeits to clandestinely provide proxy support to an unpopular war effort, why wouldn’t you also counterfeit the placards to help conceal the origin and complicate tracing them?
The economics of the situation indicate it’s cheaper to buy stolen engines from a fence than to buy bogus knock-offs. And if the knockers get their production costs down, it’s still cheaper for the “customers” to steal the real-deal engines themselves. Unless the knockers manipulate the market by suppressing that criminal activity. BTW, are Rolex knock-offs marked “Rolex”?
Corruption. The best make money business in a secular world. Nothing new. Just get to be in the mobb and you are good to go.
Security theater after 911 has done little to secure aircraft in the US. One of our local fields has fences near the gates, but anyone with a truck or even CUV can simply drive or walk over a shallow ditch and 30 feet of grass between the two gates in any number of places.
I doubt the UK has done much better. I’m wondering why they bothered to use aircraft engines at all.
I was wondering why the drone makers used aircraft engines, I understand why the UK aircraft have them.
The good news is that this probably means that Iran has a limited stock and will find it challenging to get more.
Rotax knock-offs at 1/2 the price have been available in Europe for a while now. Rumor has it that they are pretty good. https://flyer.co.uk/zongshen-aero-engines-available-in-europe/
If they find the thieves, see if they can get our lawnmower back.