A Storm Shadow missile inside the Royal Air Force museum in London. By Wikimedia user (Rept0n1x).
The United Kingdom will allow defense company MBDA to declassify information on British components used in Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles, part of an effort to help Ukraine and France establish local missile production, the British government announced on August 24.
The announcement comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham arrives in Kyiv for Ukraine Independence Day for his first international visit “to reiterate UK’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine.”
“The Government has agreed that defense firm MBDA can release classified information on UK components for the long-range missile, SCALP, as Ukraine and France look to establish local assembly lines in Ukraine,” a government statement reads.
In July, France announced a major defense package with Ukraine that includes authorizing licensed production and transfer of blueprints of the SCALP-EG cruise missile—the French copy of the Storm Shadow—in Ukraine, with the goal of starting as soon as possible and before the end of the current year.
The Storm Shadow, which features a low-observable design, was developed by French Matra and British Aerospace, and is now manufactured by MBDA.
The missile has a GPS-aided inertial navigation system with a terrain profile matching system. For terminal guidance, it is equipped with an imaging infrared scene-mapping area correlator system.
Ukraine began integrating the 1,300 kg cruise missile on its Soviet-era Su-24 fighter bombers when the deliveries from the UK first began in 2023. Both France and Italy supplied Kyiv with the missile later.
While Ukraine has up until now received the export version, with the maximum range downgraded from 560 to just 250 kilometers, the transfer of technology could now allow Kyiv to make use of the missile’s full range.
Ukraine’s ability to produce the Storm Shadow, even with direct support from the UK and France, is highly doubtful, let alone on such a short notice. The idea of producing the missile in the country, which is completely exposed to Russian missiles and drones, is also in itself not very logical.
That being said, this whole plan may be just a cover story to supply Ukraine with a domestic version of the Storm Shadow, allowing it to strike far deeper into Russian territory, while at the same time removing the UK and France from the position of responsibility.
The plan will not likely give Ukraine any serious advantage. While Kyiv scored some hits when it first received the Storm Shadow, Russian air defenses and electronic warfare adapted to the missile quickly, very much rendering it ineffective within a year.
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yes its a very good think this is happening as elections are looming in russia and deep strikes are one of the few things that would rally the russian populous against the oppressive regime. this war was a big mistake and the only person blind to this reality is putin. we all know russia will break well before the collective west ever does.
apparently you do not have basic access to russia poll data ?
poll data generated by free and honest democratic data collection agencies? poll data is one the first things a totalitarian regime would fake. everything is fake about reporting in russia from the state of the war to the state of the economy and the dictator himself is living in a massive information bubble, you can’t win a war without true information about what’s happening at the lowest level of military engagement and correct battlefield situation
putin has the same answer for the european pirates that it had for ukrapistan — total and complete annihilation.
putin has the same answer for the european pirates that it had for ukrapistan — total and complete annihilation.
epstein network agent, go order your but plug with b johnson’s face on it and wear it around all day to virtue signal your support for racism and nazism you idiot. then go join the neonazis in the trenches to please them.
if (and it’s a big ‘if’) lvov gets its water, power, and sewerage infrastructure completely smashed, where will you run ? poland ? ?
you’re safe for now but it’s wise to plan ahead. 💩
polish language classes are all the rage in lvov now, hoping they can pass for natives. stickers in polish explaining the wearer is a deaf-mute are selling well too.
it would be fair if britain’s enemies found a proxy to launch more devastating weapons at the zionist stronghold of london before the british economy collapses or civil unrest overtakes it.
well its a pitty they weren’t dumb enough to join trump into the iranian war. then iran could do that.
i dont think the uk is anywhere involved in a war at the moment.
they joined in on this gaza genocide though with this imperialist airbase set-up at akrotori.
nice and safe doing surveillance over starving and mutilated children.
not true. there’s a war going on in every brit’s head since time immemorial.
so ukraine desires more punishment for becoming a globalist toy. result = common people across the globe suffer more from taxation and inflation as trade and economies implode. sanctions are a fail.
at this moment ukraine has rewritten its entire history and exists purely to fight russia.
time to rename it lemmingland, unless the eu grabs the name first.
yea, except china ain’t gonna cut loose with it’s rare earth magnets critical to the guidance systems of these toys. and those restrictions are becoming ever tighter.
these nato blueprints will come in handy when the russian admin take kiev. or perhaps the russian admin don’t have to wait that long. the kiev junta leaks like an old bucket. then there is the question of getting these nato weapons into ukraine and keeping them safe from destruction. there aren’t many secure storage places left in ukraine so the junta is going to have to wing it.