Foreign Military Tech Relies on U.S. Chip Components: Industry's Open Secret.

Research from the British academic journal Royal United Services Institute and the nonprofit research group Conflict Armament Research found that key components from more than a dozen Western countries, including the US, have been found in the military equipment used by Russian forces in Ukraine and Iranian-made drones used by Russia in Ukraine. The research calls into question the two countries' domestic capabilities when it comes to microelectronics manufacturing and demonstrates the illicit procurement and misuse of semiconductors by overseas entities. The discovered components are classified as dual-use goods, with what are called Export Control Classification Numbers on the Commerce Control List, which means that a chip could be sold legally to a country for consumer or commercial use, only to then be resold to a company in a different country on the secondary market for military use.