Ukraine empowered: British Storm Shadow missiles to target Russia
Ukrainians may use the weapons received from the United Kingdom to attack targets on Russian territory. This also applies to Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which significantly threaten the invaders. The ongoing war has shown that sometimes there is no defence against them. We explain the capabilities of this weapon.
Keir Starmer, the new British Prime Minister, confirmed the long-awaited information for Ukrainians. A few days ago, it became clear that the United Kingdom would not cease supporting Ukraine and is already preparing additional aid packages. However, it was unclear whether the supplied weapons could also be used outside the borders of the attacked country.
Storm Shadow will fall on Russians
In an interview with Bloomberg, Keir Starmer stated that it should be expected that the missiles will be used by international humanitarian law. He noted that Storm Shadow cruise missiles, like other British weapons, were provided for defensive purposes, but it is up to the Ukrainians to decide how to use them for that defence.
Storm Shadow is a long-range weapon, cruise missiles allowing attacks on targets as far as 500 kilometres (300 kilometres in selected export versions). Ukrainians have already proven that with this weapon, they can easily hit objects located, for example, in occupied Crimea.
Each such missile is over 5 metres long and weighs 1,300 kilograms, with 450 kilograms being the weight of the BROACH (Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge) warhead itself. Depending on the needs of the attacking side, it can operate in one of several modes and explode upon impact, with a delay, or in the air when it creates a shower of deadly fragments over the given area.
A weapon difficult to detect
British missiles are carried by compatible aircraft (Ukrainians have adapted their Su-24s for this purpose), and after launch, they reach subsonic speeds (0.8-0.9 Ma).
In addition to commonly used GPS and INS navigation, they also use a fourth-generation infrared sensor that sees the thermal image of the target. These are cruise missiles with low-flight capabilities, making them difficult to detect.
Social media has already featured recordings showing not only the effects of using Storm Shadow (in the form of wrecked Russian ships or vehicles) but also proving the problems they cause for Russian air defence. British missiles are not even shot down by the Pantzir-S1, one of the newest Russian air defence systems currently in use.
