Italy boosts Ukrainian defences with advanced weapons package

The Italian government, which has not announced the contents of aid packages for Ukraine until now, is changing its approach. According to local media, the transfer of precious weapons to the front will be confirmed in a few days—the SAMP/T air defence system and long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

"The ninth weapons package for Ukraine, which Defense Minister Guido Crosetto will present by the end of the month, will include not only the SAMP/T air defence system but also a batch of long-range Storm Shadow missiles, which can potentially strike Russian soil," reports the Italian newspaper "Il Fatto Quotidiano."

Storm Shadow (and its twin SCALP-EG) are long-range cruise missiles that have 450 kg warheads BROACH (Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge). With it, they can operate in multiple modes – contact explosion (on impact), airburst resulting in a shower of fragments over a large area, and penetration, where detonation occurs with a delay.

Besides their significant destructive power, the essential features of this weapon are – a range of up to 500 km and stealth technology, which allows them to evade even the best Russian anti-air systems. Each of these missiles weighs about 1.25 tonnes, and it uses inertial and satellite navigation systems and a fourth-generation IR sensor (IIR) for targeting. Initially, only the UK and France supplied these types of missiles to the front. It was unofficially said that the Italians were also doing this for some time, and now it is being written about directly.

The SAMP/T (Surface-to-Air Missile Platform/Terrain) is, in turn, one of the best Western air defence systems the Ukrainian army is receiving from Western allies. It is the result of efforts from Italian and French defence companies.

In this system, Aster 30 missiles are used to eliminate targets. Their range depends on the type of target they are meant to hit. Ballistic missiles can be neutralised at a distance of up to 30 km, but in the case of aeroplanes, the range reaches up to 120 km. Each of these missiles weighs about 450 kg (15 kg attributed to the warhead) and measures 5 metres long. After launch, it reaches speeds of up to Mach 4.5 (~1,547 metres per second). The launchers are mounted on a truck chassis with an 8x8 drive configuration. Besides them, the SAMP/T system also includes radars, of which even the most basic (Arabel) can detect targets at a range of up to 100 km.