At an industrial estate near Kyiv, a group of engineers stand next to a tube. The metal device is part of a homemade rocket. After twiddling with an ignition cable, the engine sparks into flame. There is a terrifying, ear-splitting roar. Two dogs that guard the compound slink away and hide; swallows fly off. The centre of the pipe glows red. After a minute, the awful din stops.
Welcome to the Trembita, also known as the “people’s missile”. The prototype is Ukraine’s 21st-century answer to the V-1 flying bomb, or doodlebug, the long-range missile used by Nazi Germany during the second world war against targets in south-east England.
The Ukrainian version has a range of 140km (87 miles). It can carry 25kgs of explosives, and it runs on diesel or petrol that you can buy in the local garage.
Best of all for Ukraine’s armed forces, the Trembita is cheap. It costs about $3,000 (£2,300) to build the rocket and another $7,000 to equip it with a modern navigation system. The price is a fraction of the cost of Russia’s hypersonic and cruise missiles, Kinzhal and Kalibr, estimated to cost $1m to $2m each. Moscow has used dozens of them in regular attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv.
The project’s chief engineer, Akym Kleymenov, says his low-tech bomb can be transported in the boot of a car. It is launched by pneumatic catapult or with a solid-fuel booster. Trembita uses a jet pulse engine and carries 30l of fuel. This is enough to send the rocket on a half-hour journey into enemy territory, though not quite far enough to hit the bridge connecting Russia with occupied Crimea.
According to Kleymenov, the purpose of Ukraine’s first native cruise missile is to overwhelm Russia’s defences. “It’s simple, cheap, and good at exhausting enemy air defence systems,” he explains, standing in a garage full of welding equipment, metal cylinders and an old car missing a wheel. Asked if he is a Ukrainian Q, the gadget master from the James Bond films, he replies: “Probably, yes.”
Further tests will be carried out soon at a military training base. The plan is to launch the Trembitas in a battery, with 20 or 30 fired simultaneously. Not all will carry explosives. Targets will include ammunition dumps, and command and control centres. The rockets have a “negative psycho-emotional” effect on Russian soldiers, exposing them to a deafening 100db noise, its designer says.
The project’s organiser, Viktor Romaniuk, is a former member of Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada. He started working as a military volunteer in 2014, when Russian annexed Crimea and began a covert war in the eastern Donbas region. Romaniuk is appealing for donations. He wants to crowdfund production of up to 1,000 limited-range cruise missiles a month. This will cost $350,000 to $600,000, he estimates.
Romaniuk says the missile is named after a long wooden alpine horn played by Ukrainian shepherds in the western Carpathian highlands. His research and development team consists of eight people, working full-time, he says. They have additionally constructed drones and a new type of mortar with a highly accurate targeting system. It can be fired more speedily than a regular mortar and then packed away.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly asked western partners to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles. In summer 2022, the Biden administration delivered high-precision Himars rocket launchers. These have a range of 70-80km and were heavily employed by Kyiv in its successful counteroffensives last autumn in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions. Russia responded by moving its logistics depots away from the line of contact.
In May, the UK sent Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine, infuriating Moscow. They have a range of “in excess of 250km”, according to its manufacturer. Ukraine’s armed forces have used Storm Shadows to hit Russian logistics centres in occupied territory that was previously unreachable, including the eastern city of Luhansk, close to the Russian border, and the port of Berdiansk.
The White House has so far refused to give Kyiv ATACMS artillery, which can be deployed in Himars systems and have a 300km range.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Washington was on the brink of agreeing to hand over ATACMS, as part of a new package of security assistance.
The delivery – if it happens – comes more than 16 months after Vladimir Putin embarked on a full-scale invasion, and as Ukraine’s latest counteroffensive makes slow progress.
In the meantime, Trembita’s developers have set up their own mini- production line. In one corner of the workshop are faulty Ukrainian Grad missiles, stacked up next to Russian Grads captured on the battlefield.
These are used as a source of valuable missile fuel accelerant. Nearby is a rusting machine gun. Asked if this makeshift production facility is safe, engineer Serhii Biriukov replies: “For us, yes. For the Russians, no.”
Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence ministry, says the Trembita is one of several interesting grassroots projects being carried out by volunteer groups, in parallel to government enterprises. “We can’t rely forever on our western partners for military assistance and supplies. This is an example of Ukraine thinking strategically and implementing ideas that build up our defence industrial base,” he says. Will Trembita work? “Fingers crossed, yes,” he replies.
Sak acknowledges the war may go on for some time. He says he is confident Ukraine will win in the end because it encourages and welcomes individual initiatives and bottom-up technical creativity. Ukrainian society is networked and horizontal, in contrast to the feudal and repressive system that exists in totalitarian Russia, where everyone defers to the boss, out of cowardice and fear, he says.
Back at the workshop, the engineers are preparing for another ear-splitting test. “The dogs start barking whenever Russia attacks us with Iranian drones,” Biriukov says. “Our weapon is more powerful. When we start up the Trembita, they always run away.”
