Just three weeks before the start of the term of US President-elect Donald Trump, US President Joe Biden’s administration is in a hurry to supply Ukraine with as many weapons as possible. Mr. Biden is clearly worried that the impulsive, authoritarian-leaning Mr. Trump will do what he has threatened to do – reduce or cut off US aid to Ukraine.
Therefore, the Ukrainian government is not taking any risks. It is rushing to develop weapons it can produce, pay for, and use on its own, with or without the Americans.
According to the article, Kyiv took such steps in order to have something to replace the ATACMS missiles.
“Ukraine’s new Trembita cruise missile could become the biggest symbol of Ukraine’s quest for self-sufficiency in the field of fire,” noted The Telegraph.
The Trembita cruise missile, which is two meters long and weighs 90 kilograms, is launched from a ramp and is “nothing special”. The publication’s reviewer David Ax calls it a “miniature modern version” of Germany’s World War II-era V1 rocket, also known as the Doodlebug.
Like that rocket, Trembita “combines a loud jet impulse engine with a simple design” and “simple controls, in this case GPS,” he said.
The main feature that distinguishes this rocket from others is its low price, which reaches about 10,000 US dollars. According to The Telegraph, the missile has a range of only about 145 km. The basic version of the rocket began to be developed in 2023.
However, the Ukrainian company PARS is developing a larger and longer-range version that will be able to reach Moscow, 650 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Kremlin / Maxim Shemetov / REUTERS
The article states that this version of Trembita should be ready in about a year. It will cost more than $10,000, but is cheaper than ATACMS, which costs more than $1 million per unit. dollars.
This Ukrainian missile is likely to be the cheapest long-range munition in the world.
D. Ax believes that Ukraine could produce thousands of “Trembits” even without foreign aid. However, the same cannot be said about the more expensive Neptune or Grim-2 rockets.
Boosting missile production will help Ukraine increase its strikes on Russian military bases, oil refineries and factories, as ATACMS and Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG missiles delivered by allies will not be enough, The Telegraph noted.
And those “several hundred” ATACMS, which, according to The New York Times, were allocated to Ukraine by Mr. Biden, may be the only ones ATACMS Ukraine will ever receive if Trump cuts or cuts US aid as early as this month.
The Trembita missile does not have the payload of the ATACMS or Storm Shadow and the penetrating power and accuracy of these foreign missiles, but it will be able to successfully hit industrial complexes on Russian territory.
A Trembita charge could work well against, say, a sprawling Russian factory complex. They may not work as well against the underground bunkers of the command post, which the Ukrainians targeted with their Storm Shadow.
Missile ATACMS // AP
By relying on their weapons, the Ukrainians may be forced to strike other targets.
“But they could at least strike further,” the article added.
in 2023 In April, it was revealed that Ukraine is developing a Trembita missile with a range of 140 km. in 2024 at the end of November, President Volodymyr Zelensky set a goal of 2025. 3,000 long-range missiles were produced by the end of the year.
Source: www.15min.lt
