Adam Rawnsley

Meet the Iranian Company Powering Russia’s Drone War on Ukraine: A Profile Brought to You Through Hacks, Leaks, and Open Source Investigation

I’ve spent the past decade reporting in depth on Iran’s UAV industry and paying particular attention to the IRGC drone company Mado and its CEO Yousef Aboutalebi. One day in 2021, a self-professed “hacktivist” popped into my direct messages, told me his “group” had noticed I’d done the most work on Mado, and dumped videos and documents allegedly hacked from the company’s network and CEO.

One day in 2021, a self-professed “hacktivist” popped into my direct messages, told me his “group” had noticed I’d done the most work on Mado, and dumped videos and documents allegedly hacked from the company’s network and CEO.

The material—painstakingly verified with the help of colleagues—fleshes out a portrait of the company I’d been sketching out for years. Thanks to the additional sourcing and some help from colleagues at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and work by others, we can confirm that Mado’s are now powering the Iranian drones raining down on Ukraine and are likely in some of the cruise missiles Iran and its proxies have launched at Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Using the hacked documents and videos along with court records, web registration information, business records, and other open sources, we can trace the rise of a key Iranian drone company from late 2000s aviation forum posts to contracts with some of the highest ranking generals in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Mado’s trail starts in Iran but moves through China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, an Iranian motorcycle company, and finally Russia and Ukraine.

Adam Rawnsley is currently a reporter at Rolling Stone. He spent his career in journalism covering national and cybersecurity, primarily through the lens of open source reporting. He has written for Bellingcat, Foreign Policy, Wired, and The Daily Beast and guest lectured on open source and security issues at CyberWarCon (2022), John Hopkins University, Georgetown University, and Middlebury College.