A prototype of Russia’s Altius-U, also known as Altair, crashed into a residential building during a test flight on Tuesday near Borisoglebskoye military airfield outside Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. Local media said the impact and ensuing fire destroyed the structure in the Derbyshki dacha settlement; there were no immediate reports of casualties. The Russian Ministry of Defence has not issued a detailed statement, but state-aligned outlets confirmed the loss and attributed the accident to a failure of the drone’s navigation system, allegedly caused by “unidentified electronic interference.” Altius-U is billed as Russia’s most advanced long-endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicle, capable of intelligence, surveillance and precision-strike missions. Developers claim a range of roughly 10,000 kilometres and endurance of more than 24 hours, positioning the platform as a domestic counterpart to the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper. The mishap is a setback for one of Moscow’s flagship pre-2022 drone programmes, which has faced repeated delays. An investigation into the crash has been opened, according to local authorities.