France boosts Ukraine's defence with missiles and jets
The French Defence Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, announced the provision of Mistral anti-aircraft missiles and SCALP cruise missiles to Ukraine, which are crucial armaments the country needs. We provide an overview of the capabilities of this donated equipment.
French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, in an interview with the portal Le Journal du Dimanche, mentioned that he recently signed off on transferring around ten SCALP cruise missiles to Ukraine and announced another dispatch of Mistral anti-aircraft missiles.
The former allows for the targeting of strategic points such as command centres or ammunition stores, while the latter helps Ukraine withstand winter assaults from Russian drones and cruise missiles.
SCALP — French variant of Storm Shadow
The SCALP missiles are a counterpart of the British Storm Shadow, a product of Franco-British cooperation in the 1990s. While the Storm Shadow is manufactured in the UK, the SCALP is produced in France.
Structurally, these stealth technology cruise missiles are designed to be launched from aircraft, with a range of approximately 500 kilometres, or reduced to 300 kilometres for international clients due to the Missile Technology Control Regime regulations.
The missiles weigh about 1,300 kilograms, with 450 kilograms comprising the BROACH (Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge) warhead. The remaining weight is principally due to the turbojet engine and fuel supply, allowing the missile to achieve subsonic speeds ranging from 0.8 to 0.9 Mach (970 to 1,100 km/h).
The multifunctional BROACH warhead includes two elements: a shaped charge for penetrating the ground or damaging the surface of the target initially and a penetrative combat head. It's equipped with a Multi-Application Fuze Initiation System (MAFIS), which can be set with a delay of up to 240 ms. This is an effective solution, though not as advanced as that found in the TAURUS KEPD 350. The SCALP/Storm Shadow warhead can operate in several modes:
- impact detonation,
- airburst that scatters shrapnel over an area,
- delayed detonation.
Its immense destructive capability is enhanced by pinpoint accuracy under any conditions. Aside from the traditional pairing of inertial and satellite navigation, the guidance system of these missiles also includes a fourth-generation infrared sensor (IIR) that detects the thermal signature of the target or terrain. This allows it to hit a specific target accurately and is used for terrain tracking, compared against pre-loaded maps. This ensures precise navigation that resists GPS jamming.
Presently, Ukrainians are deploying specially modified Su-24 aircraft as carriers for these missiles, but in 2025, French Mirage 2000 jets will join them.
Mistral missiles — effective against drones and cruise missiles
The Mistral is a man-portable air defence system (MANPADS) developed in its latest version in 2019. It can engage targets at a distance of up to 7.5 kilometres and altitudes of up to 5 kilometres. The missile travels at speeds of 2.71 Mach (approximately 3,300 km/h) and destroys its target with a 3-kilogram fragmentation warhead.
The missiles can be launched from a portable single or more giant dual launcher, which Ukrainians frequently mount on vehicles as mobile anti-aircraft units.
A distinctive feature of the Mistral is its seeker head that targets the thermal signature of the target, allowing it to focus, for instance, solely on the heated surface of an aircraft rather than just its engines, rendering it immune to flares. The manufacturer, MBDA, claims that 96% of launches have resulted in the target being destroyed. However, the drawback of this feature is its relatively high cost compared to its competitors.
