America is so low on munitions from sending many of them to Ukraine that it recently sent Ukraine cluster munitions (even though many countries view cluster munitions as a war crime).
As America’s munitions run low, France is filling Ukraine’s needs by supplying Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles. It hopes that will help Ukraine with its counteroffensive against Russia.
Speaking today at a NATO summit in Lithuania, French President Emmanuel Macron said the French missiles will let Ukraine’s military “have the capacity to strike deeply.” Macron himself did not say exactly what weapons would be provided, but French government officials told reporters that the president was referring to SCALP missiles, which can travel about 160 miles.
Earlier this year, the United Kingdom began delivering its virtually identical missiles, which it calls Storm Shadow, to Ukraine.
SCALP is a 2,900 pound missile armed with conventional explosives, usually launched from aircraft such as the French air force’s Rafale or Britain’s Eurofighter Typhoon.
Produced by European manufacturer MBDA, it is the longest-range Western weapon supplied to Kyiv so far. It can travel three times as far as the missiles Ukraine had before it got British Storm Shadow missiles in May.
The missile is able to hit targets in the far east of Russian-occupied Ukraine, and even in Russia itself, well behind front lines that have remained relatively static for weeks.
MBDA boasts that the SCALP is “designed to meet the demanding requirements of preplanned attacks against high-value fixed or stationary targets such as hardened bunkers and key infrastructure.”
SCALP was used in a number of conflicts, including in Iraq, Libya and Syria.
The missile uses inertial navigation, GPS and terrain referencing to chart a low-altitude course to its target to evade detection.
It also employs an infrared camera to match images of the target to a stored picture “to ensure a precision strike and minimal collateral damage.”
Its warhead can be programmed to detonate either above the target in what is known as an airburst, on impact, or after penetration.
Such abilities are “critical for Ukraine’s forces to disrupt Russian logistics and command and control”, said Ivan Klyszcz, a researcher at the International Center for Defense and Security in Lithuania.
SCALP attacks can help “with Ukraine’s current approach to operations, … namely to advance slowly so as to protect its forces and reduce its own casualties as much as possible”, he says.
Some NATO members are worried that Ukrainian forces might attack Russia itself, raising the risk of an escalation of the conflict. Macron’s comments, however, implied that France got assurances from Kyiv that the missiles would not be fired into Russia.
Speaking in Lithuania, Macron declared that the missiles’ delivery “would preserve the clarity and coherence of our doctrine, that is to say to permit Ukraine to defend its own territory.”x
Macron did not indicate how many of the missiles would be sent, but a French diplomat said about 50 SCALP missiles would be sent.
France itself has fewer than 400 SCALPs, according to defense procurement magazine.
The missiles would come from existing French military stocks, said a French army official. A French air force official said the missiles would be used by Ukraine’s Russian-made fighter jets. Instead of being an escalatory step, he said, the long-range weapons would help even the score between Ukraine and Russia: “It rebalances things and enables Ukraine to hit deep into Russian lines and can penetrate tougher targets.”
Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that France’s decision to provide the missiles was “a mistake” that would “force us to take countermeasures.”
