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| Ukraine Receives Supply of Supersonic Strom Shadow Missiles to Integrated on Su-24 Fencer Fighter |
Kiev - The Ukrainian Air Force is waiting for the integration of a new supersonic missile called Strom Shadow. It seems that Ukraine wants to repeat the successful use of the AGM-88 HARM missile when it attacked Russia's Saki air base in Crimea.
Quoted from the Bulgarian Military, Wednesday (11/2/2022), Poland is an integrator country that has carried out a mission to field a long-range air-launched missile Storm Shadow. This missile can be used conventionally, in an attack known by its acronym SCALP. This missile was designed by the French company MBDA.
There is still no official information between the two repair factories that will carry out the integration, the WZL military plant in Warsaw and Bydgoszcz or the PZL plant in Mielec. Kiev hopes this new weapon will further increase the productivity of Ukraine's strikes. Storm Shadow missiles are designed to destroy bunkers, infrastructure, and other moving or fixed targets. The missile navigation system is a combination of INS, GPS and terrain reference.
The SCALP is over 5 meters long and weighs about 1,300 kg. Powered by a turbojet engine, the range is over 250 km at a speed of 1,000 km per hour or Mach 0.8-0.95. The warhead of the missile is of the explosive or penetrator type. French missiles can give Ukrainian warplanes an advantage during missions.
Its ability to strike targets beyond visual range, as well as its ability to evade radar detection, makes it stealthy, difficult to identify, and intercept. In addition, the SCALP is capable of flying at low altitudes of around 30-40 meters, thus evading most of the enemy's radar detection capabilities. Militarymonitoring.com says that not all combat aircraft or combat aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force will receive SCALP missiles.
One plausible reason, the price of the rocket is quite expensive at around $1.4 million. It is currently known that at least one unit of Ukrainian supersonic Su-24 Fencer fighter jet will receive SCALP integration.
The source claimed that the fighter plane was from the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Storm Shadow's future involvement in the war in Ukraine is not the first. Instead, the missile has launched air strikes from the wings of the Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale, Mirage 2000, and Tornado against enemy targets in Iraq, Libya and Syria.