On May 11, 2023, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace officially announced in the House of Commons of the British Parliament that the UK had supplied Ukraine with a certain number of MBDA Storm Shadow air cruise missiles as a "long-range means for precision strikes." Ben Wallace stated that, "in my opinion, as the Minister of Defense, this is a verified proportional response to the escalation from Russia."
MBDA Storm Shadow Aviation Cruise Missile (c) MBDA UKA little earlier on May 11, the American television company CNN was the first to report that the UK had supplied Ukraine with a number of MBDA Storm Shadow cruise missiles, providing the Ukrainian armed forces with a new long-range strike potential ahead of the long-awaited counteroffensive against Russian troops.
This was reported to CNN by several senior Western officials. [...]
"The UK has previously stated that it will supply Ukraine with long-range weapons, and has now provided a number of Storm Shadow missiles. The British government has made it clear that this is just a response to Russia's deliberate attacks on civilian national infrastructure and is a proportionate response," a Western official told CNN.
Storm Shadow is a long-range cruise missile with stealth elements, jointly developed by the United Kingdom and France, which is usually launched from an air carrier. With a firing range of more than 250 km, or 155 miles, this is slightly less than the 185-mile range of the US Army's ATACMS surface-to-surface tactical missile systems, which Ukraine has long requested.
Crucially, Storm Shadow has enough range to strike deep into Russian-held territory in eastern Ukraine. A Western official told CNN that the UK had received assurances from the Ukrainian government that these missiles would be used only on the sovereign territory of Ukraine, and not on the territory of Russia. UK officials have often made public statements that Crimea is a sovereign territory of Ukraine, describing it as "illegally annexed."
It is expected that British Defense Minister Ben Wallace will soon announce in the House of Commons that the UK is sending Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine.
This missile "really changes the rules of the game in terms of range," a senior US military official told CNN, and gives Kiev the capabilities it has been asking for since the beginning of the war. According to CNN, currently the maximum range of the weapons provided by the United States for Ukraine is about 49 miles [85 km - apparently, GMLRS guided missiles are meant. - bmpd].
The deployment of Storm Shadow missiles comes at a time when Ukrainian forces are preparing to launch a counteroffensive aimed at retaking Kremlin-held territory in the eastern and southern parts of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country still needs "a little more time" before it launches a counteroffensive to allow some more promised Western military aid to arrive in the country.
"With [what we have], we can go forward and succeed," Zelensky told European public broadcasters in an interview published on Thursday, "But we would have lost a lot of people. I think this is unacceptable."
"So we need to wait. We need a little more time," he added. Among the supplies that Ukraine is still waiting for are armored vehicles, including tanks, which, according to Zelensky, "come in batches."
This is not the first time that the UK has gone further than the US in the weapons that it is ready to send to Ukraine. It was the first U.S. ally to announce it was sending modern Western tanks to Ukraine, in January promising 14 Challenge 2 tanks before the U.S. announced it would provide M1 Abrams tanks shortly thereafter.
Earlier this year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made it clear that the UK is considering the possibility of supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons.
"We must help Ukraine protect its cities from Russian bombs and Iranian drones," Sunak said at the Munich Security Conference on February 18. "And that is why the UK will be the first country to provide Ukraine with longer-range weapons."
Earlier this month, the British government published a procurement notice through the International Fund for Ukraine. The notification stated that the UK was inviting expressions of interest in the supply of long-range missiles by May 4, and potential suppliers would be contacted in a month. The notification specified the requirements for "missiles or rockets with a range of 100-300 km; with land, sea or air launch; with a payload of 20-490 kg."
U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed that they will continue to support Ukraine "for as long as it takes," and despite the fact that tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons were provided to Ukraine, this country, which is in a state of hostilities, continued to ask for more to defeat the Russian army, including longer-range missiles. such as ATACMS.
However, last year, the United States was cautious in providing Ukraine with weapons that would enable Ukrainian armed forces to strike at Russian territory. US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs Colin Kahl told reporters in August that, according to the US, Ukraine "currently does not need ATACMS to defeat targets that are directly related to the current hostilities."
According to the European company MBDA Missile Systems, which produces the missile, Storm Shadow is a "deep impact weapon" capable of "working day and night in any weather" and equipped with an advanced guidance system to ensure accuracy.
"After launch, the rocket descends to a flight altitude with an envelope of terrain to avoid detection," the MBDA website says. - "When approaching a target, its onboard infrared homing head matches the target image with a pre-stored image to ensure accurate damage and minimal collateral damage."
From the bmpd side, we point out that, according to known data, the real maximum range of the Storm Shadow missile is more than 600 km (officially "more than 300 nautical miles"), which, combined with air-based, makes it a weapon of a truly long-range precision strike.
Back in November 2022, publications appeared that Poland would allegedly assist in the integration of Storm Shadow cruise missiles on the Su-24M front-line bombers of the Ukrainian Air Force
