Paris Plans to Transfer Scalp Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine

Paris plans to transfer Scalp long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine's armed forces

This was reported by Le Monde newspaper.

France plans to provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with SCALP-EG long-range cruise missiles as part of a new aid package, thus repeating the British, who previously provided Ukraine with their anatomy of the same missiles.

According to President Emmanuel Macron, France's strategy is to "help Ukraine survive in order to bring everyone back to the negotiating table."

Kyiv will also receive dozens of armored vehicles, including AMX-10RCs combat vehicles. In addition, he said, Paris is negotiating with a number of countries to "train pilots." 

"We are not waging a war against Russia, we are helping Ukraine to resist the Russian aggressor. We do not supply weapons that would allow us to reach Russian soil. Sometimes you have to set limits. We should not weaken France's ability to defend itself," Macron said about the transfer of fighter jets to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The French-British Storm Shadow/SCALP EG is a long-range air-to-ground missile. It is designed to overcome air defense systems and destroy important stationary and fixed targets, including bunkers.

The 5.1-meter-long missile has a flight weight of up to 1,300 kg and a warhead weight of 450 kg. The missile was developed by Matra (France) and British Aerospace (UK) from the second half of the 1990s to the early 2000s. It is now produced by the MBDA consortium.

The French and British versions of the missile are generally identical, with the only differences being in the software and aircraft used to carry the missile.

In particular, the French Navy primarily equips Rafale, Mirage 2000, Eurofighter fighter-bombers and, in the future, new generation of multi-purpose nuclear submarines with SCALP cruise missiles. 

Another difference between the SCALP missile is the composition of the guidance system and the range of the used cruise missile - in the SCALP it is 250 km and in the future it should be increased to 400 km.

Also, the SCALP missile design includes a number of measures aimed at reducing the missile's radar visibility. Reducing the likelihood of detecting a missile in flight is also facilitated by the fact that the entire marching section of the trajectory passes at an altitude of 100-150 m, and before attacking the target it drops even lower - to 50 m.

Earlier as The Gaze reported that the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, during her speech at the Globsec security conference in Bratislava, called on everyone who can provide Ukraine with high-powered weapons.

According to her, this could help Ukraine bridge the gap in the range of the invading forces on the battlefield.

In addition, representatives of the Ukrainian government and military command asked to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with American tactical ballistic missiles ATACMS with a range of up to 300 km.

However, instead of ATACMS, in May Ukraine unexpectedly received assistance from the United Kingdom - Storm Shadow cruise missiles with a detected range of more than 250 kilometers.