First British Storm Shadow Missile Goes Down in Ukraine: Russian MoD

Russian defense ministry has claimed that its air defense forces managed to shoot down a Britain-delivered Storm Shadow (Scalp) cruise missile.

Air defense systems intercepted seven HARM anti-radar missiles, one Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile and ten HIMARS multiple rocket launchers during the day, the ministry said in an official statement.

This comes a day after this type of missile was reportedly used by the Ukrainians to attack Russia-occupied Luhansk.

Related news: Polish MiG-29s Will Enable Ukraine to Launch 'Storm Shadow' Missiles

Experts were confident that the 'Storm Shadow' with its 250 km range and radar evading ability, will enable Ukrainian pilots to blunt some of the air superiority which Russian Forces enjoy over their adversaries.

Editor of the Arsenal Otechestva magazine Alexey Leonkov told Russian government-owned TASS on Thursday that Storm Shadow are not difficult targets for Russian systems, and some of them had been shot down in Syria.

The Storm Shadow/ SCALP is a stealthy long-range, air-launched cruise missile, jointly developed by the UK and France. These missiles have a firing range in excess of 250km, just short of U.S.’ surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), that Ukraine has long asked for.

Storm Shadow / SCALP has been put into operations with the Royal Air Force and the French Air Force in 2003 and was used in the Gulf, Iraq and Libya. It is operated from Tornado, Rafale, Mirage 2000 and in the future from Eurofighter Typhoon.