Yuri Kobzar21:55, 02.01.25

Ukrainians are afraid of a situation where their partners leave them alone with the aggressor.

Amid fears that the new US administration will cut military aid to Ukraine , Ukrainians are rushing to provide themselves with their own instruments of war. One of the most promising is the Trembita missile, writes The Telegraph .

“Ukraine’s new Trembita cruise missile may be the biggest symbol yet of its quest for firepower autonomy. While it waits for the day when it runs out of American ammunition, Ukraine is preparing to build Trembita and other long-range, deep-strike munitions. There are many of them,” the publication says.

About two meters long and weighing 90 kilograms, the Trembita is launched from a ramp. It has a simple pulse jet engine, a tubular fuselage and a square wing. This simplicity gives the Trembita its best feature – low cost, the publication notes.

At about $10,000 apiece, the Trembita can carry 18 kilograms of explosives up to 144 kilometers. But its developer is now working on a more powerful version that can travel 650 kilometers and is guaranteed to reach Moscow. That version, which should be ready in about a year, will undoubtedly cost more than $10,000, but it will still be potentially the cheapest deep-strike munition in the world. By comparison, the ATACMS, which flies a maximum of 300 kilometers, costs more than $1 million.

The author of the publication notes that Ukraine can put thousands of Trembitas into service even without external budgetary assistance.

“This scale matters. To match Russia’s massive bombing of Ukrainian cities, bases, power plants and factories, Ukraine would need to massively escalate its own bombing of Russian cities, bases, refineries and factories. The small number of ATACMS and Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG cruise missiles that Ukraine has received from the US, UK and France are not enough for an intensive deep strike campaign,” the publication notes.

The Trembit Shkval may work well against the Russian military-industrial complex, but it certainly won’t be very effective against the underground command bunkers that the Ukrainians are hitting with British Storm Shadow missiles.

“By relying more on their own weapons, the Ukrainians may have to resort to a different set of targets. But at least they will be able to continue to hit. (…) The Ukrainians know that the day will come when they will be, if not alone, then more alone. They are preparing,” the publication concludes.

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