![]() I am sure they are thinking about that," he cautioned. “The Russians have not so far adapted or come up with countermeasures. However, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, former Ukrainian defence minister, told The Telegraph that Russia is learning from the attacks. “The Russians have got a very good air defence system, but the Storm Shadow is still looking very effective,” said the RAF source. ![]() Missile wreckage believed to be that of a crashed British Storm Shadow, has been posted on Telegram This has been made possible by a Tornado pylon connector likely donated by Britain, according to images from the field. An initial shaped charge cuts a passage through armour, concrete or earth, allowing a larger following warhead to penetrate inside the target and detonate.Īs well as being used by the RAF and the French, the missile is also in service with Italy, Greece, Egypt, India, Qatar and others.Īt first carried by RAF Tornado, Rafale, Mirage and Eurofighter Typhoon jets, the Western missiles have now been retrofitted to Ukraine's Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-24s. The missile's dual-action, bunker-busting 450kg (992lb) warhead is designed to take on hardened targets. The weapon was later used in Libya against Islamic State group targets in Iraq and against Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons infrastructure in Syria. It was rushed into service in time for the Gulf War, where it was found to be so accurate that in one attack, a Storm Shadow reportedly punched a hole in the side of a building and then another one followed through the same hole. “The basis of Storm Shadow is that it can be launched outside of the reach of the enemy and can get there flying very low under radar coverage and make a big bang at the other end, without putting your people in danger," an RAF source said.ĭuring its development in the 1990s, designers reportedly wanted a highly precise weapon allowing forces to strike on specific intelligence about high-value targets, for example, if spies had found out Saddam Hussein was in a bathroom deep within one of his palaces. Measuring 5.1m long (16ft 7in) and weighing 1,300kg (2,850lb), the missile is launched from a plane for pinpoint strikes on strongly protected targets from as far as 190 miles away. The weapon causing the devastation is a Franco-British, air-launched cruise missile with a bunker-busting warhead. On July 11, a senior Russian general, Lt Gen Oleg Tsokov, was reported killed when Storm Shadows hit a hotel housing Russian commanders in Berdyansk, on Ukraine's occupied southern coast. The Ministry of Defence said the Minsk was probably “functionally destroyed” while the Rostov “suffered catastrophic damage”.Īmong other notable strikes, on August 6, Ukraine struck and damaged the Chonhar road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea and a smaller bridge linking the town of Henichesk with the peninsula's northeast coast. ![]() The missiles struck the Minsk landing ship and the Rostov-on-Don attack submarine. Warships, bridges and ammunition dumps have all been hit.Ī little over a week earlier, on September 13, Storm Shadows hit the Sevastopol shipyard which is home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet. The September 22 strike on the fleet headquarters is alleged to have killed as many as 34 Russian officers and was one of several recent attacks which would have been unthinkable at the start of the summer. Russian positions once considered safely out of reach of Ukrainian fire are suddenly vulnerable.
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