Improvise, Adapt, Overcome – the Trembita Missile and Other Ukrainian DIY Weapons

The Militarnyi website reported on April 30 about the latest ingenious weapon that Ukrainian volunteer engineers have come up with to support Ukraine’s military in the fight against Russian invaders.

Engineers from the PARS volunteer design bureau, working alongside the anti-Russian Vidsich, protest group have started to develop the Vidsich-designed “people’s” missile – the Trembita.

It is based on the principle of the WWII German V-1 flying bomb, a small cruise missile powered by a gasoline-fueled pulsejet engine. The missile, which will be fitted with glide wings is initially launched from a pneumatic “catapult.” It will carry a 20-kilogram high-explosive or thermobaric warhead.

While Vidsich admits their DIY-missile will not be able to strike with the same precision as a laser-guided rocket system, they say the plan is to fire swarms of 20 or so missiles, to “overcome enemy air defenses and hit targets up to a sufficient depth.” The group claims their missile has a range of up to 140 kilometers.

Volunteers want to farm out production of missile components to garage workshops throughout Ukraine.

“There is no way the Russians would be able to destroy such an all-encompassing people’s defense industry with their rusty S-300s or high-precision Kalibr missiles,” they said.

Artist’s impression of the Trembita winged missilePhoto: Militarnyi Other Topics of Interest Thinking Out Loud – Where We’re at, What’s at Stake, and What Ronald Would Have Said Kyiv Post’s Chief Editor, Bohdan Nahaylo, comments on the latest developments in the Ukraine war and the challenges that Kyiv might face ahead.

While the Trembita may be the most technically challenging DIY weapon Ukrainian engineers have come up with, it is not the first time they have thought outside the box and improvised weapons to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In the middle of 2022, faced with a shortage of artillery platforms, workshops across the war-torn country began to convert pick-up trucks to fire a number of weapons, including anti-tank launchers, automatic grenade launchers, and even Grad rocket launchers.

Ukrainian engineers are also developing ground-based attack drones, which look like a larger version of a kid’s remote-controlled car. The Gnom Kamikaze is designed to deliver an eight-kilogram explosive device, based on the TM-62 anti-tank mine, under an enemy vehicle before detonating it.

After Russian forces were driven back from parts of eastern Ukraine last year, many farmers’ fields were littered with mines and other unexploded ordnance. As Kyiv Post reported on April 24 a farmer has fitted a tractor with recovered armor from Russian military vehicles and a commercial remote-control system to try to clear his fields near the village of Hrakove.

It is a feature of the war that Ukrainians have rallied around to support the military effort in any way they can. These disparate groups of engineer volunteers all subscribe to the unofficial motto of the US Marine Corps: “Improvise, adapt, overcome.”