Storm Shadow and ATACMS, the devastating missiles with a range of 300 km with which Ukraine could attack Russia

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war has had several key moments related to the weapons available to both sides. The military aid requested by Volodymyr Zelensky and approved by NATO countries, including Spain, has been a constant since the beginning of the conflict. But it has not been without controversy: first there were heavy tanks like the Leopard or the Abrams, then fighters like the F-16 and Now long-range missiles are on the tablefollowing Russia’s receipt of Iranian ballistic missiles.

This latest delivery, which follows the hundreds of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones sold by Tehran to Moscow, could trigger a new escalation. It is no coincidence that, after the confirmation of this delivery, US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met in Washington. Among the most important points of their meeting was Ukraine’s possible authorization to bomb with ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles — both with a range of up to 300 km — from military targets on Russian soil.

There are those who already take this for granted, such as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who assured a press conference this week that Washington had already made the decision to allow Ukraine to fire these missiles against Russia. He also included one of his usual threats: “our response will be appropriate“The involvement of the United States and European countries in the conflict over Ukraine is direct, and each new step increases the degree of this involvement.”

Storm Shadow

The UK delivered an unspecified number of Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine in May 2023 with a only condition: that they would not be used to attack Russian territory. A year and a half later, the scenario has changed and now It seems inevitable that these projectiles will be one of the keys to Ukraine restoring the balance..

Storm Shadow (Storm Shadow in Spanish) is an air-to-ground cruise missile based on the French Apache projectilesdeveloped since 1994 by the French manufacturer Matra and British Aerospace, which are currently manufactured under the aegis of the European consortium MBDA. Its name corresponds to the British name, while in French it is known as SCALP-EG (French acronym for General Purpose Long Range Cruise Missile).

The missile has a range of between 250 and 300 km and has a 450 kg tandem warhead. It is powered by a turbojet reaching a speed of Mach 0.8 (nearly 1,000 km/h) and has been adapted to be launched from different aircraft, such as the Tornado IDS, the Dassault Rafale or the Eurofighter. According to several reports, the delivery to Ukraine was delayed precisely because of the difficulties encountered in equipping these missiles with Soviet-origin MiG fighters, the only ones available to the Ukrainian air force to date.

BROACH warhead characteristics an initial penetrating charge to penetrate the ground or breach the exterior of a bunker then a variable delay fuze to control the detonation of the main warhead. The missile weighs a total of about 1,300 kilograms, has a maximum diameter of 48 cm, a wingspan of 2.84 meters and a length of 5.10 meters. The targets for which it is designed include command, control and communication posts, reinforced bunkers, airfields, critical infrastructure, surface ships or bridges.

This is a “fire and forget” missile, programmed before launch. Once launched, the missile cannot be controlled or ordered to self-destruct, and information about its target cannot be changed. The missile follows a trajectory semi-autonomously, in a low-altitude flight guided by GPS and terrain mapping to the designated area. Once close to the target, The missile ascends and then collapseslike the suicide drones that Ukraine and Russia have been using since the beginning of the conflict.

During the final maneuver, the warhead cone is ejected to allow a high-resolution thermal imaging camera to observe the target area. The missile then attempts to locate its target based on its targeting information. These missiles have received several improvements and upgrades since their first version, such as the ability to transmit information about the target just before impactand they have a version to launch from warships.

Given the distance between the Ukrainian-controlled territory and Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean Peninsula and headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, these missiles They could prove particularly useful in threatening the entire Russian military operations in Ukraine..

Mark Cancian, senior adviser in the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in Washington Post that these missiles would allow kyiv’s forces adopt tactics already used by Russiawhich launches “cruise missiles” [desde aviones] on its own territory to be beyond Ukrainian air defenses.”

ATACMS

After Zelensky’s successive requests, the United States agreed in October 2023 to send ATACMS missiles to Ukraine. for the recovery of territory lost by the invasionprimarily for long-range attacks against supply lines, railways and command posts.

ATACMS missiles were developed during the latter stages of the Cold War and entered official service in 1990. They are a ground-to-ground attack system manufactured by the American Lockheed Martinwho was also responsible for creating the different versions available.

One of the key points of these American missiles is their compatibility with the HIMARS systems already operating on Ukrainian soil. This feature makes ATACMS one of the best candidates for promoting the counteroffensive and could be applied in a very large number of scenarios. In addition, exceed a maximum speed of 3,000 kilometers per hourcomplicating the work of the various anti-aircraft shields deployed by Russia.

The first version of the missile family, known as the M39, has an inertial guidance system independent of GPS that allows it to reach up to 165 kilometers from the launch point. a total of 950 mini-bombs in the form of submunitions making it one of the most powerful cluster missiles in its class. There is a second version with 300 submunitions using GPS guidance and up to 300 kilometers of range.

The missile performs a stabilized turn in the terminal phase of the attack at the same time as a small charge explodes and the submunitions are distributed evenly in a circular patternThe area covered by the fragmentation missile can be configured at will by varying the drop height of the submunitions.

Each of the submunitions is approximately the size of a baseball and each one contains a high-explosive spherical fragmentation charge inside. The fuze is armed when it reaches 2,400 revolutions per minute of rotation and activates when it hits the target. The hundreds of submunitions generate a large cloud of shrapnel and explosions particularly effective against poorly protected elementssuch as personnel on foot or parked aircraft. Also against anti-aircraft systems such as the S-300, which have very sensitive and easily damaged sensors and elements.

Ships moored together could also be a target for these munitions. Yes ok a single missile could not sink a ship directlyThe hundreds of explosive submunitions could cause significant damage mainly to sensors located on the deck and mast.

Lockheed Martin manufactured a total of 4,000 ATACMS missiles since the start of production. Of these, about 600 units have already been used by the United States in some of the armed conflicts in which it has participated in recent decades. On the other hand, the US Army has been updating its fragmentation missiles for several years to versions with a single warhead on board.