France authorizes new long-range strikes by Ukraine in Russia
Ukrainians have obtained permission from France, which, unlike the Americans, allowed them to attack targets in the Russian Kursk and Belgorod regions using long-range weapons. Here’s what the Ukrainians can now use.
The French have given permission to use SCALP cruise missiles, the French equivalent of the Storm Shadow missiles, to attack targets in the Russian Kursk and Belgorod regions.
This is significant news for the Russians, as the Ukrainians have been using these missiles with considerable success to strike Russian strategic targets in Crimea and beyond.
SCALP / Storm Shadow missiles - Russians' long-range European nightmare
SCALP cruise missiles, the French counterpart to Storm Shadow missiles, have been produced by MBDA Corporation since the early 2000s thanks to British-French cooperation from the 1990s.
These stealth technology cruise missiles can be launched from aircraft and have a range of about 500 kilometers (300 miles) or about 300 kilometers (190 miles) for export customers due to Missile Technology Control Regime limitations. In the case of Ukraine, the carriers are cleverly modified Su-24 aircraft.
Storm Shadow / SCALP missiles are equipped with a turbojet engine, allowing subsonic speeds (0.8-0.9 Mach), and weigh about 1,300 kilograms (2,900 lbs), of which about 450 kilograms (990 lbs) is the BROACH (Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented CHarge) warhead.
The BROACH warhead is multifunctional and consists of two parts. The first is a small shaped charge designed to expose the target or damage its structure. The second part is a penetrating warhead that detonates with a delay of up to 240 milliseconds. This delay is set in the Multi-Application Fuze Initiation System (MAFIS) fuse before the missile is launched, based on the target's structure (for example, the estimated thickness of reinforced concrete). The warhead can operate in three modes:
- Impact Detonation,
- Airburst Detonation, scattering fragments over the area,
- Delay Detonation
An advanced guidance system ensures the missile's hit's precision. It combines inertial and satellite navigation with a fourth-generation IR (IIR) sensor that detects the target's thermal image. This system not only ensures pinpoint accuracy in the final phase of flight (the sensor compares the detected image with a preloaded target photo) but also helps track the terrain.
As a result, the missile's computer knows exactly where it is even in the case of GPS signal jamming, a tactic the Russians have mastered. This feature poses significant challenges for some types of American weapons, such as the GLSDB.
