Colonel Khodarenok admitted that the SCALP missiles could reach the Moscow region
The APU received long-range SCALP air-to-surface missiles from France. This was stated by the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. Military observer of the Newspaper.En" Mikhail Khodarenok understood what a French cruise missile is, whether it will change the course of the conflict and whether the air defense of the Russian Armed Forces will cope with it.
Back at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July, French President Emmanuel Macron promised that he would hand over long-range missiles to Kiev. Currently, the intentions of the head of the Fifth Republic have already begun to be realized. At the same time, the exact number of products transferred to Kiev is not specified.
What is a cruise missile SCALP
The Storm Shadow/SCALP air-launched cruise missile is a joint Anglo-French development and is produced by the MBDA European consortium (Matra BAE Dynamics Alenia). There is no fundamental difference between the British Storm Shadow rocket and the French SCALP EG.
The French version of the missile is designated by the abbreviation SCALP EG, which translates as a multi-purpose high-precision long-range cruise missile with autonomous guidance.
Image source: Alina Jus/"Newspaper.Ru"
The starting mass of the SCALP EG is 1300 kg, the warhead is a concrete-piercing type or a cassette. The product is equipped with a 450 kg warhead, the Storm Shadow firing range exceeds 250 km, the flight altitude is 30-40 m, the rocket speed is 0.8 M (approximately 1000 km / h).
Geometric dimensions: the length of the rocket is 5100 mm, the wingspan is 2840 mm. The engine is a turbojet TRI 60-30 "Microturbo" with a thrust of 4.5-5.7 kN.
The guidance system - in the initial and middle sections - is inertial with correction by GPS signals and the TERPROM system, in the final section - with thermal homing. The firing range of Storm Shadow /SCALP varies in various publications and reference books. In some sources it is given as over 250 km, in others - 300 nautical miles (550 km).
The Ukrainian Air Forces can use the Su-24M front-line bomber as the carrier aircraft of the KRVB SCALP. The principle of guidance is "shot and forgot". The use of Storm Shadow/SCALP in military conflicts has been recorded since 2003. During the fighting, the missile demonstrated very high efficiency.
Among the tactical and technical characteristics of the SCALP, special attention should be paid to the parameters of the warhead - almost half a ton of high-penetration explosives, which is twice as much in weight as the ATACMS Block IA tactical ballistic missile, which Ukraine has been unsuccessfully asking from the West since the very beginning of the conflict.
Is a "fracture" possible?
The intended targets for the SCALP are command posts, communication centers, ammunition depots, ships at anchorages, infrastructure facilities (bridge crossings, railway junctions, unloading stations). The cost of the SCALP rocket is €850 thousand.
The most priority targets for the attack of Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missiles, of course, are the Crimean and Chongar bridges. These bridge crossings are not only of strategic importance for the transportation of materiel for the United Group of Troops (forces) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, but also have the most important moral and psychological significance for the broadest masses of the Russian population. It is for these reasons that bridges appear in the list of objects for fire damage at number one.
Will the supply of SCALP cruise missiles bring a turning point in the course of the armed struggle? At first glance, the transfer of such weapons to Ukraine should significantly increase the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, there are nuances here.
The combat and numerical strength of the Ukrainian Air Forces is currently very limited and is represented by only a few dozen combat aircraft (even fewer of them are potential Storm Shadow/SCALP missile carriers). They cannot objectively solve the problem of capturing air superiority in its existing form. For a radical solution to the problem, it is necessary to re -equip the Air Forces of Ukraine with multifunctional fighters of Western production in the amount of at least 100 units. Machines like Saab JAS-39E/F Gripen, F-16 Block 70/72 or F-15 can claim the role of such a 4++ generation aircraft. Only in this case it is possible to achieve the planned effect.
Taurus is on the way
However, it seems that the matter will not be limited to the supply of only SCALP-type missiles. The other day, Bundestag deputy from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Andreas Schwartz said that Ukraine needs to transfer German-Swedish air-to-surface cruise missiles of the Taurus KEPD 350/150 type (KEPD stands for Kinetic Energy Penetrating Destroyer). It should be noted here that if an open discussion of such an issue has already begun, then most likely the case is at the stage of making a final decision.
This product is designed to deliver high-precision strikes on point (including buried) targets without entering the carrier aircraft into the enemy's air defense system/air defense system defeat zone.
The rocket was developed and manufactured by Taurus Systems GmbH, based in Schrobenhausen - a joint venture of MBDA Deutschland (better known as LFK - Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH) and the Swedish company Saab Bofors Dynamics AB. The tactical and technical characteristics of the TAURUS KEPD 350/150 are as follows. Geometric dimensions: rocket length - 5100 mm, width - 1080 mm, wingspan - 2064 mm. The mass of the product reaches 1360 kg, and the mass of the warhead is 481 kg.
The cruise missile has a combined guidance system consisting of three subsystems: IBN (Image Based Navigation - image Based navigation), TRN (Terrain Reference Navigation - navigation by landscape reference) and MIL-GPS (Global Positioning System - global positioning system).
The use of three subsystems allows the rocket to fly long distances without GPS support. At the same time, high accuracy of guidance is provided by an autonomous inertial navigation system, which is periodically corrected in flight according to data from the millimeter wavelength range radar, which compares the landscape with the reference digital terrain maps available on board. On approach to the target, according to the inertial system, the infrared homing head is turned on, which provides guidance of the missile at the end of the flight.
The rocket is equipped with an economical Williams International P8300-15 turbojet engine. The maximum firing range of the Taurus reaches 500 km, while the flight speed is 0.6-0.95 M. Taurus carriers are multifunctional fighters Panavia Tornado, McDonnell Douglas F /A-18 Hornet, Saab JAS 39 Gripen.
All of these products (Storm Shadow/ SCALP and Taurus KEPD 350/150) have low radar visibility and fly to the target at extremely low altitudes. For these reasons, the implemented zones of destruction of anti-aircraft missile systems and complexes (Buk, S-350, S-300/400) are relatively small.
In medium-terrain conditions, Storm Shadow/SCALP and Taurus KEPD cruise missiles are usually detected at a range of no more than 18-20 km. Almost immediately it is necessary to launch anti-aircraft guided missiles. The meeting with the target will be approximately at a range of 11-13 km. With well-built radar reconnaissance and anti-aircraft missile cover systems, enemy cruise missiles are in most cases detected in a timely manner and hit by anti-aircraft missile fire.
Mikhail Khodarenok
