Inventors in Ukraine have developed an inexpensive cruise missile they hope can “overwhelm” Russian air defences so that rockets equipped with warheads are more likely to reach their targets. The inventors are volunteers but they are no amateurs: they have already produced hundreds of mortars. FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg and Illia Dyadik report.
The “trembita”, a traditional Ukrainian mountain horn, is also the name of a cruise missile developed by volunteers in Ukraine, who say it will be hundreds of times cheaper than Western equivalents.
“Rockets with warheads will have more expensive electronics so they can hit targets accurately,” explains Serhii, a volunteer with the Pars design bureau.
“But thousands of decoys will be very cheap: we want to overwhelm the Russians’ air defences so that our attack rockets hit their targets,” he says.
A group of volunteers from elsewhere in Ukraine watch a demonstration of the missile. They are interested in helping to make Trembitas in multiple locations.
“I’m very happy that this kind of production is developing in Ukraine,” says Yulia, a volunteer from the Kyiv region. “And I like how these weapons are all designed to let soldiers operate further away from the front line.”
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