The Ukrainians have built the first cruise missile. It is a powerful weapon powered by a pulse engine

The President of Ukraine and representatives of the government announced that there has been a long-awaited breakthrough in the Ukrainian army. Now it has a new weapon of its own production, which will soon radically change the face of the war in favor of Ukraine and bring the aggressor to its knees. In addition to a large army of 30 different types of flying and floating kamikaze drones, the most important element has just arrived, i.e., the first Ukrainian cruise missile.

It's called Trembita, and it was created in an industrial facility near Kyiv. There, a group of volunteer engineers spent the last year working hard on a homemade missile, using an improvised production line, faulty Ukrainian Grad missiles and samples seized from the Russian army. The effect delights. You've built an incredibly great weapon.

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Trembita, a powerful home-made projectile

The creators admit that the Trembita is a "people's missile", a flying bomb used to attack Russian ammunition depots and command posts. The missile is structurally similar to the German V-1 flying bomb. Interestingly, the name Trembita was given in honor of a folk wind instrument in the shape of a straight pipe, played by Ukrainian shepherds. The developers say that the missile has a range of 140 kilometers, a speed of up to 400 km/h and a mass of 100 kilograms, including the warhead itself weighing 25 kilograms (thermobaric or fragmentation). As for the propulsion, it is a pulse jet engine powered by diesel or gasoline, which can be purchased at the local gas station.

A huge attribute of the projectile is the low cost of its production. Building the rocket costs about $3 000, and equipping it with a modern navigation system costs another $7 000. So we're talking about a missile that costs a fraction of that ($10 000) as the HIMARS missiles ($150 000) and has much better performance.

Pulse engine like a V-1 missile

The key advantage of Trembita missile is its engine - the projectile is powered by a pulse motor. This solution is used e.g. by the Germans in the famous V-1 missile. This type of drive is very simple - it contains a minimum number of moving parts, and the engine's operation is based on a series of micro-explosions, generating a pressure wave that moves through the outlet nozzle.

The disadvantage of the pulse engine is the low thrust at low speeds. The object propelled in this way must be accelerated during take-off using some kind of launcher, ensuring - before the engine starts working - a sufficiently large air flow (during the tests visible in the film, the Ukrainians use a compressor for this purpose).

This type of engine is not demanding on fuel. According to the constructors of Trembita, their weapons can be powered by E92 or E95 petrol available at petrol stations.

Ukrainian cruise missile for strikes on Crimea

The first Trembita are already in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which will soon make use of them. In addition to single attacks on Russian military targets, missiles can be sent in swarm technology, in batches of tens or hundreds, to create a "negative psycho-emotional impact" on Russian soldiers, exposing them to deafening noise of over 100 dB. You can also swarm targets and get effects like hitting Storm Shadow, Kinzhal or Iskander missiles.

The SZU do not conceal that the missiles will most often be used to destroy the military infrastructure in Crimea. 140 kilometers of range will be enough to neutralize the objects that are and will be used to defend the peninsula, when military operations will soon move closer to it. The Ukrainian authorities have announced that Crimea is to be liberated by the end of this year.