The Defense Tech Innovations Forum 2025 in Kyiv showcased the Trembita cruise missile, a product of the PARS volunteer design bureau and NGO Vidsich volunteers. This domestically-produced missile is designed with a specific purpose: to degrade and overwhelm enemy air defenses.
Key features of the Trembita
Here’s a breakdown of the Trembita’s key features and capabilities:
- Two variants. The Trembita comes in two forms: a strike variant that carries either a thermobaric or high-explosive warhead, and a decoy variant designed to attract enemy fire.
- Cost-effective. Its main advantage is its low cost. The decoy version is estimated to cost about $4,000, while the strike variant, with its more sophisticated navigation and warhead, costs about $14,000.
Specifications of the Trembita
- Type: Missile designed to suppress enemy air defense systems.
- Range: Up to 150 km.
Maximum Altitude: 2,000 meters. - Minimum Altitude: 30 meters.
- Warhead: 20 kg.
- Weight: Approximately 100 kg.
- Speed: Over 400 km/h.
What Trembita can do
The Trembita uses a pulsejet engine, a simpler and cheaper option that allows for rapid production. While pulsejets have drawbacks such as noise and heat signature, these are considered less critical for a missile designed to saturate enemy defenses.
The missile is launched from a ground-based or trailer-mounted catapult, using a solid-fuel booster for initial acceleration. The main engine ignites prior to launch.
The low cost and simple design allows for mass production, a key factor in its intended role of overwhelming enemy air defenses.
The Ukrainian Missile Program
The development of the Trembita is part of a larger push by Ukraine to bolster its domestic missile production capabilities.
Since 2024, programs such as Brave1 have provided grants to Ukrainian manufacturers to encourage innovation in missile technology. Currently, numerous companies are developing various types of missiles, including cruise, ballistic, anti-aircraft, and drone-based systems.
The goal of these efforts is to provide Ukraine with the ability to strike targets beyond the range of current drone capabilities and to improve its air defense network.
