DroneShield chief executive Oleg Vornik and two other board members sold more than $2.4 million in stock in the two hours that the market wrongly thought the defence technology company had signed a major new US government contract, sending its share price sharply higher.

DroneShield made the admission in a nine-page response to questions from the ASX almost a week after shareholders savaged the company when it disclosed Vornik, chairman Peter James and non-executive director Jethro Marks had sold $70 million of stock over the course of a week.