Ukraine’s actions angered Moscow, which described the launch as crossing a red line. On Thursday, Russia responded and launched a medium-range ballistic missile that did not carry a nuclear charge. However, President Putin has been threatening and flirting with the idea of using such weaponry, something that could escalate to catastrophic levels.
Storm Shadow: the missile that caused Russian fury
Ukraine launched American ATACMS missiles, for which it had requested authorization a long time ago, although this did not happen since its Western allies were cautious about Moscow’s possible response.
The next day, The Ukrainian army fired several Storm Shadow missiles against a Russian military target, according to a Russian military blog and Reuters. They have a range of more than 250km and are French and British manufactured. Precisely the latter’s government gave the green light to the use after what was the deployment of North Korean troops to help the Russian army, according to Guardian.
The missiles were developed by the French company Matra and British Aerospace in the 1990s and They are currently produced by the European missile manufacturing consortium MBDA. They weigh 1300kg and carry a BROACH warhead, with an explosive charge of 450kg.
In this way, BROACH has a load initial penetrant to clear the ground or enter a bunker and then a variable delay fuze to control the detonation of the main warhead.
Can reach targets located between 250 and 500 kmdepending on the version used, unlike High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which are already available to kyiv’s forces and can reach a maximum of 80 kilometers.
According to its manufacturer, it is a weapon deep attack ”designed to meet the demanding requirements of pre-planned attacks against high value fixed or stationary targets”. This long-range air-to-surface missile, designed as ”bunker bustercan also be used to penetrate underground facilities.
Likewise, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Rustem Umerovrefused to confirm or deny the use of British- and French-made missiles during a press conference this Wednesday: ”We are using all means to defend our country, so we will not go into details. But we are simply saying that we are capable and in a position to respond.”
In addition, a Russian blogger’s publication claimed that up to 12 missiles were fired. Under that line, he uploaded to the Telegram application a photo of what he classified as a fragment of a Storm Shadow missile, something that was confirmed by weapons expert Trevor Ball, a former explosives technician for the United States Army, although he could not specify if It was taken during that day.
Source: Ambito
