Russian private “Voronezh” rocket project exposed as fantasy with 5 engineers, no license and $2.5 billion price tag

Jul 8, 2026, 4:26 AM

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Russian private “Voronezh” rocket project exposed as fantasy with 5 engineers, no license and $2.5 billion price tag

A private Russian company VKT and its partner LLC “3DIR” are promoting the “Voronezh” launch vehicle project.

The developers claim high interest from businesses and foreign partners, but experts consider the project unviable. 

Declared participants in the project:

• SNIU — development of the propulsion system, stabilization engines, and second-stage launch support.

• PJSC “ODK-Kuznetsov” — NK-3A and NK-3B engines.

• LLC “3DIR” — rocket design development.

• LLC “Miltech” — onboard systems complex.

The financial appetite is substantial: developers currently require 400 million rubles just for working design documentation. However, according to specialists’ calculations, creating a full space rocket complex will cost more than 2.5 billion rubles — many times higher than the private players’ declared starting budget of 400 million rubles.

The personnel situation is equally catastrophic. At the PJSC “ODK-Kuznetsov” design bureau, tasked with developing new engines, only a handful of five specialists remain from what was once a powerful engineering school. The enterprise is in dire financial straits and sustains production of engines for the “Soyuz-2” solely thanks to state subsidies. Entrusting the creation of new rocket engines to just five remaining enthusiasts is pure fiction and profanation, having nothing to do with reality.

The developers position the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Digital Development as future customers. However, representatives of these agencies did not participate in forming the technical specifications (TOR). In the rocket industry, the customer always writes the TOR based on their real needs. Ignoring this rule guarantees expensive redesigns, adaptation to new requirements, and missed deadlines. The technical elaboration of the documentation itself is also considered weak.

The “cherry on top” is the complete absence of a license to work with state secrets among the project initiators, and no provision for military acceptance. This fully rules out the use of the “Voronezh” rocket for military or classified state purposes, nullifying any declared interest from security agencies.

Joshua Fenwick

Crime & Justice Correspondent