Drone Headsets Sent to Russian Troops Booby-Trapped to Explode: TASS

• Russian soldiers received sabotaged drone headsets that exploded when switched on.
• The headsets were supplied via humanitarian aid, according to Russian state media.
• The incident highlights risks in military supply chains and crowdfunded gear.

Russian soldiers received a batch of sabotaged drone headsets that were modified to explode when they were switched on, according to Russian media.

Igor Potapov, a spokesperson for Russian manufacturer JSC NPP, told state-controlled news agency TASS that an individual donated the goggles as humanitarian aid.

“When the glasses were turned on, they detonated and exploded,” Potapov said.

TASS did not specify whether there had been any injuries or fatalities.

According to Potapov, the goggles were Skyzone Cobra X v4 headsets, used to provide a visual when controlling first-person view drones. He added that when the military opened the batch, “they found plastic explosives in all of the products.”

Business Insider was unable to independently verify the report.

Skyzone supplies companies in multiple countries, including Russia and Ukraine, but does not list JSC NPP among its distributors.

Neither company immediately responded to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Defense Intelligence of Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the reported sabotage.

Consumer-grade FPV drones are used in their thousands by both Ukraine and Russia, for everything from surveillance and reconnaissance, to target spotting and carrying explosives.

Pro-Russian Telegram channel Razved Dozor shared images purporting to be of the headsets still in their boxes, along with video of them being dismantled.

It said that the goggles contained between 10-15 grams of plastic explosive and that the boxes showed signs of tampering.

The channel added that this was one of several instances of plots to use unwitting volunteers to sabotage Russian soldiers. BI was unable to verify the claim.

Matthew Ford, a war expert and lecturer in international relations at the UK’s University of Sussex, compared the Russian reports to Israel’s attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon using explosive pagers last September.

That incident required months of planning and infiltration into Hezbollah’s supply chain.

In this instance, the headsets were reportedly supplied via an individual donor, likely bypassing official channels.

Russian and Ukrainian units have, throughout the war, turned to crowdfunding to get some basic gear, in what Ford refers to as “participative warfare” — the idea that anyone can participate in the war effort.

At the time of publication, a Cobra X v4 was available to buy on Amazon for $324.

Threatening this less orthodox supply chain adds new headaches for militaries, who will have to add a new level of scrutiny, Ford said.

“That’s the target, I suppose,” he said.

JSC NPP, which is sanctioned by the UK and EU, develops and supplies electronic warfare equipment to Russian forces in Ukraine, according to TASS.

Potapov warned individuals to be vigilant when dealing with new donors to the Russian armed forces.