“Britain will allow the release of classified technology so that a British/French-designed cruise missile can be manufactured in Ukraine, a boost for Kyiv in its efforts to bring more firepower to bear hundreds of kilometers into Russia. Paris and Kyiv want to set up a Ukrainian production line for the SCALP air-launched cruise missile, known”, — write on: www.cnn.com
Britain will allow the release of classified technology so that a British/French-designed cruise missile can be manufactured in Ukraine, a boost for Kyiv in its efforts to bring more firepower to bear hundreds of kilometers into Russia.
Paris and Kyiv want to set up a Ukrainian production line for the SCALP air-launched cruise missile, known as the Storm Shadow in the United Kingdom, by the end of the year. The declassification of information on British-made components of the missiles, announced Monday, is a key step towards that goal.
Made by European arms manufacturer MBDA, SCALP is a conventionally armed, long-range, deep-strike weapon, of which Ukraine has used imported versions with success against hardened targets, including in November 2024, when they were fired at targets inside Russia for the first time.
Powered by a turbojet engine, it has a maximum range of 550 kilometers (342 miles) and can carry a 400-kilogram (880 pounds) high-explosive penetrating warhead, according to the Missile Threat project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Once launched, the missile uses a combination of internal, global positioning and terrain reference navigation coupled with “infrared seeker and automatic target recognition algorithms” to achieve a high degree of accuracy in all weather conditions, according to the CSIS.
The SCALP is fired from Ukraine’s Su-24 or Mirage 2000 fighter jets and attempts to avoid air defenses by hugging the terrain during flight.
Its use for Ukraine will be in striking buried military targets, like command bunkers, something more challenging for the lighter weight drones Kyiv has been using to hit more exposed targets like oil refineries or warehouses.
The Kremlin reacted angrily to the announcement, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the UK was “participating in the war” and “pouring fuel on the fire.”
His statement came after the Russian embassy in London warned the UK last week that “the deeper its involvement” and “the greater its support” for Ukraine, the “higher the price it will pay.”
Britain and France have not announced how many SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles have been supplied to Ukraine to date, but in 2025 manufacturer MBDA reactivated production lines that had been shuttered for 15 years.
“Supplied to Ukraine, the Franco-British SCALP/Storm Shadow missile has demonstrated its effectiveness in modern high-intensity combat, in decisive situations,” French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said at the time.
Even with the UK announcement, it could take several years for production to scale up, but British Prime Minister Andy Burnham says London is backing Kyiv for the long haul.