STORM SHADOW MISSILES

16th September, 2023 Security

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Context

British-made Storm Shadow missiles were used in a Ukrainian strike that damaged a Russian submarine and ship at a major naval port in Crimea.

The Missile and its characteristics

The Storm Shadow is a Franco-British low-observable, long-range, stealth air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994.
"Storm Shadow" is the weapon's British name; in France it is called SCALP-EG.
The missile is based on the French-developed Apache anti-runway cruise missile but differs in that it carries a unitary warhead instead of cluster munitions.
The missile weighs about 1,300 kilograms with a conventional warhead of 450 kilograms.
It has a maximum body diameter of 48 centimetres and a wingspan of three metres.
It is propelled at Mach 0.8 by a Microturbo TRI 60-30 Turbojet Engine and has a range of approximately 560 km.
The missile is Fire and Forget, programmed before launch.
Once launched, it cannot be controlled or commanded to self-destroy and its target information cannot be changed.
The missile follows a path semi-autonomously, on a low flight path guided by GPS and terrain mapping to the target area.