FPV goggles as booby traps: sabotaged Skyzone Cobra V4 explode in Russia

Tampered goggles for first-person view (FPV) drones have turned up in Russia, it recently emerged. The Skyzone Cobra V4 FPV goggles contain 10 to 15 grams of C-4 explosive, a detonator and a battery. According to reports, the charge goes off as soon as the goggles' cooling fan starts.

Around 80 sets of these goggles had been sent to various units of the Russian army by several public organisations that collect donations for the Russian armed forces. The “mined” goggles are now being tracked down and confiscated. Russian authorities have identified the sender of the parcels as a person who left the Russian Federation on 3 February on a flight from Moscow to Istanbul.

Russia holds the Ukrainian intelligence services responsible for the sabotage. They have so far not commented on the reports of explosives in the goggles of Russian drone pilots.

How the sabotaged FPV goggles were discovered

The sabotage probably came to light on 4 February: in the Belgorod region, one of the charges detonated on the head of a Russian soldier, who suffered injuries to his face and eyes. Between 4 and 7 February, seven further explosions of charges in FPV goggles were then recorded in the Kursk, Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

The goggles are now also being X-rayed. A Russian Telegram channel mentions a sabotaged pair that had been bought in a shop.

A look back: in September 2024, thousands of pagers made in Taiwan exploded in the hands of Hezbollah members. The operation with the tampered pagers from Taiwan had been prepared over a long period by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. The simultaneous remote detonation killed nine people and injured around 3,000, including many Hezbollah leaders and the Iranian ambassador in Beirut.