Storm Shadow: Ukraine's Deadly New Cruise Missile

it's one of the most impressive weapons in the entire British and French arsenals a long-range air-launched attack missile the Storm Shadow known in France's scalp is designed for taking out reinforced targets tots with a two-stage Warhead that first breaks into a bunker and then detonates it can unleash death and destruction from over 250 kilometers away used offensively in Iraq Libya Syria and Yemen it is a track record that would make most other Munitions rather envious yet while Storm Shadow has been deployed in countless conflicts it's not because of its usage in the Middle East that most people have heard of it rather it's because of its recent successes on the battlefields of Ukraine Center Key of by Britain and France in mid-may 2023 Storm Shadow is the most significant weapon donated since the first High Mars arrived last summer already credited with taking out command posts it has brought swaths of Russian and russian-occupied territories within Ukrainian range and potentially this Alters the course of the war in today's video we're investigating the history and engineering of Storm Shadow as well as its current role giving the Russian mod nightmares foreign [Music] [Music] army with an interest in blowing up some remote enemy command post you might just find yourself turning to the Storm Shadow known in military parlance as a long-range air launch standoff attack missile Storm Shadow is today a set piece weapon in the Arsenal of both the British RAF and the French army de la air but it also shows up in stockpiles of other nations in the Middle East kataha UAE Saudi Arabia and Egypt all field storm shadows in Europe it can be found in the militaries of Italy Greece and well since the spring Ukraine even distant India possesses the missile a missile that's compatible with all sorts of fighter jets according to Air Force technology Storm Shadow can be to quote integrated into tornado GR4 tornado RDS grip and Mirage 2000 Rafael Euro Fighter typhoon and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or JSF aircraft on top of that Ukraine recently modified their su-20 or fencer jet fighters to likewise carry it in their battle against Putin's genocidal regime so given it so prevalent in some parts of the world while now might be a good time to Pivot this video to a fundamental if rather simple question what exactly is it the work of European Defense conglomerate mbda systems Storm Shadow is a 5.1 meter long missile designed to travel far travel fast and avoid detection and interception by enemy defenses equipped with a turbo Mecha micro turbine Tri 6030 turbojet engine it can reach a blistering Mach 0.8 or what us non-specialists would call the 987 kilometers per hour or just really bloody quick at these speeds the missile can travel over 250 kilometers homing in on a target with near deadly Unstoppable efficiency battle efficiency is one of the key reasons so many countries pay the big bucks to get their hands on it and we really do mean big bucks a single munition costs an eye-watering 790 000 pounds and at the time of recording that's just under a million dollars so yes it's sadly out of the price range of any viewers hoping to fix now onto their model airplane and terrorize the neighbors but for anyone with the money and Military structures to afford it it is worth the outlay when fired the Storm Shadow Dives towards the Earth hugging the terrain as it zips along at such a low altitude that it's a nightmare to detect the path it takes is pre-programmed as all the details of the Target that it's after that means Pilots can just fire and forget leaving the onboard Advanced navigation system to do all of the work those Pilots can also be certain that it's not going to accidentally smash into a civilian structure according to manufacturer mbda an on-board system repeatedly checks the upcoming Target against pre-loaded images to make sure that it is hitting the right building and what a variety of buildings it is designed to hit unlike some Advanced missiles storm Shadows are not intended for moving targets instead they're meant to be used to destroy valuable stationary things like air bases ports or reinforced command centers and that last one explains a crucial part of the WarHeads design operating on a two-stage principle the Warhead is intended to go smashing through meters of concrete or layers of rock its first stage borrowing deep into solid targets that done the second stage then deploys and does what an expensive missile is meant to do it detonates and with its launch weight of 1300 kilograms there's enough explosive material for a hell of a blank in most cases that explosion will be the first that anyone knows about the attack by all account stormshadow is a stealthy weapon one designed to avoid detection it can be deployed in even the foulest weather to cover up its approach the impact this is having on the war in Ukraine is something that we're going to be discussing in chapter three but first it's time for a little bit of an important detour one that's going to take us back to the birth of this deadliest of missiles a detour into the history of the Storm Shadow [Music] the first recorded use of a Storm Shadow in combat came way back in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq as one of only three nations to join the USA from the beginning of its Middle Eastern Adventure the UK was deeply involved in the initial phases of the conflict some 45 000 British service members were deployed the largest since the Gulf War in 91. that meant the British military are wanted to be equipped with the latest technology and so it was that the Storm Shadow wound up entering service ahead of schedule and it announced its arrival to the World by being fired from an RAF tornado GR4 during the fighting yet while this would be the first confirmed combat use of a Storm Shadow it was not the start of this missile's journey no to truly understand the history we need to go back before attacking Iraq was even a creepy gleam in George W Bush's eye all the way back to 1997 when the UK mod and the French equivalent both awarded huge grants to a fancy new conglomerate known as Matra Bae Dynamics formed by a merger of missile manufacturer prison both Nations that just happened a year before the firm was supposed to Herald a new era of Franco British military cooperation but it wouldn't just be Paris and London that wound up being involved in this just after the turn of the Millennium the company likewise merged with Italy's main missile Builder a few years later Germany's lfk would also be brought in the result was that by the time stormshadow was seriously under development three major European capitals had a vested interest in mdba producing something spectacular more if you include the monetary investment that Greece had fronted remember this was the era of European Harmony when Britain was still a paid up member of the EU creating a cross-border manufacturer that could turn out high-end weapons was in everybody's interest on this score mbda would certainly deliver by 2004 both the UK and France were equipped with the missile although in Paris this case it would take a lot longer before it was actually used in combat it wasn't until the 2011 air campaign in Libya that a French fighter deployed a Storm Shadow known in paris's scalp during offensive operations by then the weapon was well on its way to making its presence felt across the world along with Iraq and Libya storm Shadows would also be used in Syria and in Yemen in the first case they came courtesy of Coalition airstrikes against government targets that Unleashed chemical weapons attack in the second they were fired by Saudi fire to jeds during their notorious air campaign against yemeni Rebels come the end of the 2010s then the Storm Shadow was a battle-tested weapon that had been used across the Middle East idiot even led to a spin-off ship launch version used by the French navy yeah for all it's undoubted successes not everything was plain sailing in the UK the retirement of the RAF tornado in favor of typhoons had created a bit of an expensive headache as the military was forced to modify the new Jets to allow them to keep using the storm Shadows known as Centurion the program ran from 2018 but it wouldn't be until 2021 that an RAF typhoon finally fired one in a combat that situation using the missile to penetrate a cave system used by ISIS in Iraq as the new decade dawned the Storm Shadow was in a good place a combat-tested missile recently modified to remain relevant until 2030 that was still being used in major missions not exactly the staff of global Fame but well known Enough by military Geeks however something was about to change that would change all of that but would turn the Storm Shadow from an obscure if powerful piece of Kit into something known Across the Western world oh we're talking of course about the Ukraine war thank you it seems weird now to look back on the earliest days of the Ukraine war and realize just how terrified Western nations were of provoking Russia back then the idea that NATO countries would send Kiev multiple rocket launchers or main battle tanks or air defense batteries seemed as incomprehensible as Klingon poetry famously Germany's then defense minister Christine lambrecht bogged at donating anything beyond 5000 helmets well what we could say is this what a difference a year makes while Western nations may have been wary about sending Advanced weapons in Spring of 2022 come spring of 2023 the UK felt able to send one of its best long-range missiles the introduction of Storm Shadow to the Ukraine war came on May the 11th when defense minister Ben Wallace announced before Parliament that missiles from the UK stockpile of 800 would be shipped immediately just Days Later France joined in pledging to send additional sculpt versions while the Kremlin did its usual huffing and puffing and threatening Britain with nuclear war Ben Wallace was quick to put the blame back on Putin saying to quote we will simply not stand by as Russia kills civilians Russia must recognize that its actions alone have led to such systems being provided to Ukraine now you're struggling to work out why Moscow might be so paranoid about small quantities of a single missile you need to remember what happened last time a long-range Western weapon was introduced into the conflict so you want the crib sheet answer well the Russians were absolutely hammered by it back in the summer of 2022 the Russian army had gotten over its initial run of embarrassing defeats outside of Kiev and settled into a new groove instead of a lightning fast strike with elite units it was using artillery barrages to slowly grind forward in the dawn bat destroying everything in its path with way more ammunition and ranged guns than Kiev this suited Russia just fine indeed it was beginning to look like the Kremlin had the upper hand but then High Mars arrived on the scene and all of Putin's plans went to hell multiple Rocky launchers with ranges of 80 kilometers hymas could hit targets way behind the Russian front lines which they duly did destroying command posts blowing up Depots and smashing supply lines with absolute gas stove so chaotic was that summer for Russian Logistics that it's been credited with helping Ukraine liberate Hassan in the fall sadly though it couldn't last as Think Tank iosis documented the Russians eventually got their act together and moved their main Logistics Hub some 120 kilometers from the front outer breach of highmass they also adapted their air defense to intercepting the incoming missiles with a range of over 250 kilometers though the Ukrainian hope is that storm Shadows can repeat in 2023 what highmars did so well in 2022 that means hitting Russian ammo dumps and fuel Depots bar Far Far Behind the front lines it means blowing up command posts and killing officers who can't even remotely be said to be in the field it even means being able to hit occupied territories including Crimea course there are differences for one thing Ukraine had a relatively decent supply of missiles for high Mars while it's thought their Storm Shadow and sculpt stockpiles are relatively small that means it's unlikely we'll see total chaos in the Russian forces over the summer rather we're more likely to see surgical strikes on a few high-value targets still the actual military impact may come second to the psychological one as our USI likewise pointed out just knowing Ukraine has access to storm Shadows makes Russia's life a bit of a misery Logistics hubs will have to be dispersed to avoid becoming targets air defense Crews will have to choose whether to continue monitoring for high Mars or adjust their priorities for the new missiles Russian commanders will become ever more scared of approaching the front for the Ukrainian Air Force that additional range also makes their job safer no longer will they have to Brave regions covered by Russian air defenses to fire off a shot still as Ben Wallace told the UK media storm Shadows for all their advantages are not a super weapon moscow's caliber cruise missiles for example have a much longer range 2000 kilometers compared to storm shadows 250. and Putin is free to fire those calibers at Ukrainian territory as part of the deal to get the missiles Ukraine's leadership had agreed to not deploy them against targets inside Russia the final issue is the a limited number of craft that Ukraine has capable of carrying them MiG-29 fulcrums and su-25 frogfoots could only carry 500 kilogram payloads with one Storm Shadow weighing almost three times as much it means only a fraction of Ukraine's Air Force can even deploy them despite all this at the time of recording storm Shadows have already been fired multiple times over contested territory at least one Russia military headquarters have been blown up in Berlin while Logistics hubs in donbass seem to have also been bombed where the Storm Shadow lives up to the hypers kiev's counter-offensive unfolds is something that would just have to wait and see but we don't want to end today's video talking about the present about wars underway right now instead it's time to turn our gaze to the Future towards the next decade when Britain and France are due to replace their Storm Shadow and scalp stockpiles the question is then well what comes next although it looks like an acronym used in the early days of texting FC ASW is in reality nothing less than the future of Defense technology in France and Britain standing for future Cruise anti-ship weapon or something in French that I'm not going to butcher FC ASW is intended to replace Storm Shadow in 2030. a way of making sure the British and French militaries stay relevant in a changing world the fact the two are working so closely together on the project is thanks entirely to the Lancaster house treaties signed back in 2010 the two treaties were effectively the franco-british way of looking at the accelerating military might of Nations like China and going yeah we're probably not going to be able to deal with that one individually are we guys a huge pooling of resources and capabilities the treaties turned both militaries into one another's biggest Partners a partnership that even managed to survive the fractious divorce known as brexit and good thing it did because the FC ASW is going to take years to complete work officially began in 2017 with the launching of the joint program to replace not just the Storm Shadow and scalp but also the air and ship launched exorcet and the Harpoon anti-ship missiles at the time of recording six years down the line fcasw is still only about halfway through the concept phase and that means there is still plenty of speculation among those of us without security clearances about what it's going to eventually look like we know that like Storm Shadow it will be manufactured by mbda systems we know too that Rolls-Royce and saffron power units have recently joined the project but the actual specifics remain shrouded in mystery including as to whether it will be a Hypersonic missile or not the general assumption seems to be that it will be another subsonic stealth missile like Storm Shadow but it's not certain especially with the UK recently making a lot of noise about wanting Hypersonic capabilities realistically though any Hypersonic missile is likely to be a separate development to FC ASW at least we hope so because there's definitely room in the franco-british arsenals for both of these things especially after Russian Hypersonic missiles have underwhelmed in the Ukraine war still whatever the fcasw wines are being it'll be interesting to see if its Legacy can ultimately compete with that of the Storm Shadow in this one missile Britain and France managed to find themselves in possession of a quietly iconic weapon one that is now being used to great effect in Ukraine now to be honest it's still too early to tell if it's gonna grip the Public's imagination in the same way that high Mars or the javelin or the db2 Drone did perhaps the era of ordinary ukrainians writing folk songs about and painting murals dedicated to the most effective Western weapons is over it may be that in a year or two even though it's clued in ukrainians outside the military will say storm what now nonetheless this is a weapon that right now has a chance to make a difference to help Ukraine push Russia back Beyond its borders to level a playing field of Vladimir Putin has sought to unfairly tilt in his direction we can only hope it's a role that the Storm Shadow missile succeeds in playing [Music] [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 126,848

Keywords: storm shadow cruise missile, russia ukraine news, russia ukraine war, ukraine war, russia vs ukraine war update, russia ukraine, ukraine war update, ukraine, world news, russia, war news, news

Id: XBgD2Av7P3g

Length: 17min 40sec (1060 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2023

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