Table Of Content
- Russia conducted unsuccessful offensives in multiple areas, Ukraine military says
- Services
- Watch: Russian rockets destroy Kharkiv television tower
- US aid will give Ukraine breathing space - it won't be enough to beat Russia
- Ukraine claims success in the east as south braces for counteroffensive. Here's the latest
- How the Storm Shadow missile maker launched a new model of defence co-operation
The Ukrainians appear to be trying to disrupt both Russian military communications and electronic warfare capabilities ahead of a counteroffensive. Missile Threat brings together a wide range of information and analyses relating to the proliferation of cruise and ballistic missiles around the world and the air and missile defense systems designed to defeat them. Missile Threat is a product of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Russia conducted unsuccessful offensives in multiple areas, Ukraine military says
"They're effective weapons," Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on a July 14 episode of the Geopolitics Decanted podcast, recorded while he was visiting Ukraine. "They're difficult to intercept, and it gives Ukraine, to put it crudely, a much longer stick." The first stage of the warhead makes the way for the second stage by cutting the surface of the target. The larger second stage (main) of the warhead then penetrates into the target and detonates.
Services
“The basis of Storm Shadow is that it can be launched outside of the reach of the enemy and can get there flying very low under radar coverage and make a big bang at the other end, without putting your people in danger," an RAF source said. Among other notable strikes, on August 6, Ukraine struck and damaged the Chonhar road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea and a smaller bridge linking the town of Henichesk with the peninsula's northeast coast. The September 22 strike on the fleet headquarters is alleged to have killed as many as 34 Russian officers and was one of several recent attacks which would have been unthinkable at the start of the summer. All of occupied Ukraine is within firing range of what has become Kyiv’s most feared weapon. Bakhmut is the site of a months-long assault by Russian forces, including Wagner mercenaries, that has driven thousands from their homes and left the area devastated.
Watch: Russian rockets destroy Kharkiv television tower
ATACMS are ground-launched ballistic missiles, which follow a high trajectory like a mortar or artillery. They can be fired in quick succession from Himars or MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) vehicles that the Ukrainians already field. During its development in the 1990s, designers reportedly wanted a highly precise weapon allowing forces to strike on specific intelligence about high-value targets, for example, if spies had found out Saddam Hussein was in a bathroom deep within one of his palaces. Since the missiles began arriving in May, they have given Ukraine longer reach for its attacks than ever before and have been used in a string of strikes far behind enemy lines.
Meanwhile, Germany is still in discussion over sending its own Taurus cruise missiles, with a range of 300 miles. Ukrainian commanders are engaged in a contest with Russian air defences and electronic warfare to get the strikes through, so will not comment on exactly how the missiles are being employed. The missile is "a real game changer from a range perspective," a senior US military official told CNN and gives Kyiv a capability it has been requesting since the outset of the war.
In addition to a 1,000-pound warhead and stealth features, Storm Shadow has multiple guidance systems, including GPS, inertial guidance, and terrain-following radar, that enable it to avoid detection by flying just a few hundred feet above the ground. MBDA is a defense joint venture of the Airbus Group (37.5 percent), BAE Systems (37.5 percent), and Leonardo (25 percent). While Storm Shadow is an air-launched cruise missile, those variants for other countries include ship- and submarine-launched versions. The United Kingdom has supplied Ukraine with multiple Storm Shadow cruise missiles, giving Ukrainian forces a new long-range strike capability in advance of a highly anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces, multiple senior Western officials told CNN. The day after the British announcement, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed Ukrainian aircraft had already struck a pair of industrial cities in the Russian-controlled eastern city of Luhansk using the cruise missiles, an attack U.S. officials seemingly confirmed to CNN.
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The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) placed a €1.13bn contract with MBDA Systems for the development and production of the Storm Shadow long range missile in 1997. The programme was intended to meet the conventionally armed stand-off missile (CASOM) requirement of the UK Royal Air Force (RAF). Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was taking a “rather negative” view of the UK’s move. “This will require an adequate response from our military, who … will make appropriate decisions,” he said. For that reason, to keep the onslaught going, Ukraine has been asking for American Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) with a range of nearly 200 miles. “The Russians have got a very good air defence system, but the Storm Shadow is still looking very effective,” said the RAF source.
Ukraine claims success in the east as south braces for counteroffensive. Here's the latest
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They are fired from aircraft, so the longer range means Ukrainian pilots will be able to stay further from the frontlines. The UK has confirmed it is supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles it requested for its fight against invading Russian forces. Storm Shadow/SCALP is designed to be lofted from aircraft, and has been integrated into Sweden’s JAS-39 Gripen fighter, France’s Mirage 2000 and newer Rafale fighters, and Tornado jets and newer Eurofighter Typhoons built by Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Once launched, the Storm Shadow drops to low altitude to avoid detection by enemy radar, before latching onto its target with an infra-red seeker. By contrast, the US-supplied Himars missiles used by Ukraine only have a range of around 80 km (50 miles). Storm Shadow’s success—versus Russia’s technically superior air defenses—will depend in part on its stealth characteristics. Because the missile relies on image-matching instead of GPS for terminal guidance, it should at least be less degraded by Russian GPS jamming than HIMARS rockets. And this time, those depots and command centers might have to relocate all the way to Russian soil to escape the Storm Shadow’s reach. That could especially threaten Russian forces in southern Ukraine, most distant from the Russian border.
But despite the vast amounts of manpower Russia has poured into capturing the city — using tactics that have been compared to a “meat grinder” — they have been unable to take total control, and on Wednesday suffered heavy losses in the area. A drone strike hit Bryansk, another Russian region on the Ukraine border, said Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz. Additional drone attacks were conducted over Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a Telegram post Wednesday. The number of lootings and robberies allegedly committed by Russian troops has increased during Russia’s evacuation of occupied territories, according to Ukraine’s deputy defense minister. The CSIS Missile Defense Project’s monthly newsletter has info on the project’s latest publications, events, and missile defense news. In 1997, the UAE order 600 Black Shaheen missiles, which were believed to be delivered in 2003 and operational by 2007.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, is reported to have similar concerns about Taurus, especially if German technicians have to deploy to Ukraine to service the missiles, or if the Ukrainians fire them into mainland Russia or at the Kerch Bridge into Crimea. “ATACMs in the Ukrainian context are probably more akin to Storm Shadow or Taurus. They’re ballistic rather than cruise, so a different challenge for the Russia air defence, but it would be doing the same thing - forcing Russia to disperse and introduce inefficiencies into their logistics,” said Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute.
In a statement released Thursday morning, Hanna Maliar said Russian troops have been using “the alleged need to ensure the evacuation of the population” in the southern Zaporizhzhia region as a “pretext” to seize vehicles and other private belongings. The weapons will give Ukraine the "best chance" of defending itself, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said. Sébastien Roblin has written on the technical, historical, and political aspects of international security and conflict for publications including 19FortyFive, The National Interest, MSNBC, Forbes.com, Inside Unmanned Systems and War is Boring.
On April 13, the United States, United Kingdom, and France launched a joint strike of 105 missiles on Syrian chemical weapons storage and research facilities. The operation came in response to an alleged poison gas attack by the Syrian government on the rebel-held area of Douma. The UK has confirmed it is supplying Ukraine with long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles, to aid in its continuing fight against Russia’s invasion. The latest example is the Storm Shadow, an air-launched cruise missile developed by the UK and France that Ukraine has used to spectacular effect, notably in a strike in June that damaged the vital Chonhar bridge between the Crimean peninsula and southern Ukraine.
Joe foe, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced the transfer of the Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine before the British Parliament last week, stating the missiles would “allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces based on Ukrainian sovereign territory. As Ukraine will not have nearly as many cruise missiles available, Adel suggested Ukraine might instead launch concerted attacks with drones and SDB glide bombs (both ground- and air-launched) supported by electronic warfare systems to confuse and overwhelm Russian air defenses. Britain has become the first western country to provide Ukraine with the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles that Kyiv wants to boost its chances in a much-anticipated counteroffensive, prompting a threat from the Kremlin of a military response. The SCALP EG and its variants are a series of French-made air-launched cruise missiles. Variants of the missile have been customized and sold to the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The missiles struck the Minsk landing ship and the Rostov-on-Don attack submarine. The Ministry of Defence said the Minsk was probably “functionally destroyed” while the Rostov “suffered catastrophic damage”. RAF Storm Shadows and their French twin the Scalp missile, have become the favoured weapon for a new campaign of Ukrainian deep strikes which have shaken the Kremlin's occupation of Crimea. Like so many weapon systems, the Storm Shadow and its variants have seen operational use in Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Storm Shadow is 5.1 meters (16’ 8”) long, weighs 1,300 kilograms (2,860 lbs.), and carries a 400 kg. (880 lb.) high explosive Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge (BROACH) warhead from BAE Systems.
Rahul Udoshi, senior weapons analyst at Janes, the defence intelligence company, agreed Russia are already closing weak points in its defence. The Russian newspaper Izvestia reported in May that the Storm-Shadow-carrying SU-24s are escorted by MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters to protect them from Russian interception and that the Ukrainians often use decoy drones to exhaust Russian air defences. At first carried by RAF Tornado, Rafale, Mirage and Eurofighter Typhoon jets, the Western missiles have now been retrofitted to Ukraine's Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-24s. This has been made possible by a Tornado pylon connector likely donated by Britain, according to images from the field.
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