Drones used in strikes on Moscow reportedly failed to detonate because they didn’t hit intended targets

On May 30, multiple residential buildings in Moscow were hit by drones. The Russian news outlet Kommersant reports that the drones failed to detonate because they didn’t hit the correct targets, according to experts who examined the drone wreckage.

Only one of the three drones exploded. According to preliminary reports, the drone’s explosives either didn’t detonate or didn’t fully detonate. Experts say that a bright flash, which was visible by eyewitnesses and surveillance cameras, was caused by the ignition of gasoline vapor in a broken drone engine. The two other drones didn’t explode at all. According to Kommersant, the drones were loaded with KZ-6, a high-explosive.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that all three drones were suppressed by electronic countermeasures, “lost control, and deviated from their targets.” “Additionally, it’s assumed that the drones’ explosive devices didn’t activate when they hit the apartments because […] the drones were flying toward other targets,” according to the news outlet.

Meduza adds that the drones didn’t explode when hitting the residential buildings for two possible reasons: either they were equipped with a contact fuse, which is able to detonate an explosive device only when it comes into contact with a certain type of surface, or the drones were programmed to detonate only when reaching certain GPS coordinates.