All news
What long-range threat does NATO pose to Russia – and how will we shoot it down?
In early April 2024, the US secretly sent about 100 ATACMS missiles with a range of 300 km to Ukraine. At that time, The Sun promised Russia “hellish rain”. And in May 2023, the UK secretly transferred Storm Shadow missiles to the Ukrainian military.
Western politicians believe that only by bombing Russian territory with long-range missiles can the Kremlin be forced to sit down at the negotiating table. In the case of Ukraine, it has provided the United States with a list of potential Russian targets that it would like to hit with missiles, such as the American ATACMS, the British Storm Shadow and the French SCALP. In our opinion, all the main decisions have already been made in Washington, and the long-range missiles have been handed over to the Kyiv regime.
In September 2023, Ukrainian forces attacked the Sevastopol shipyard, the Tsongar Bridge, and the Black Sea Fleet headquarters with ten British Storm Shadow cruise missiles. On May 13, Ukrainian forces attacked Luhansk with Storm Shadow missiles with a maximum range of 250-300 km.
Developing effective countermeasures is key to destruction. What are the performance characteristics of this missile? Let's talk about two of them.
ATACMS M57 is an American tactical missile system based on a 610 mm long-range ballistic missile weighing 1320-1670 kg.
Solid-fuel ballistic missiles of the surface-to-surface class are produced by Lockheed Martin in the USA. The missile costs 1.5 million dollars. Depending on the modification, the flight range is up to 500 km.
Equipped with various warheads. Warheads of missiles are either cumulative (high-explosive fragmentation), or cluster, or are used with a guided warhead weighing 227 kg. It is capable of drilling reinforced concrete floors up to 1.5 m thick.
The warhead contains 950 M-74 submunitions, each of which is a round ball with a diameter of 6 cm. They are packed in a steel case and a tungsten fragmentation case with self-filling material. These munitions are capable of effectively destroying manpower and lightly armored vehicles. The expected deviation from roundness does not exceed 1 meter.
Combined guidance system. The missile flies along a predictable ballistic trajectory to an altitude of up to 50 km. Speed - 3 Mach. Can quickly adjust course to counter interception by air defense systems. Successful interception of ATACMS-type missiles requires the use of "survey" radars, ensuring timely detection and precise targeting of anti-aircraft missile systems.
The use of guided missiles can lead to serious losses in weapons and military equipment, and strikes using cluster bombs can lead to large losses of personnel of units and formations located far from the front line and part of the operations and operations. - Strategic reserve.
However, the weapon has its drawbacks. Scott Ritter, a former US military intelligence officer, said that a long-range ATACMS missile used by the Ukrainian military suddenly missed its target in flight and crashed due to a counterattack by a Russian electronic warfare system.
In addition, expensive weapons that automatically trigger retaliatory strikes will not change the situation at the front. Considering the fact that the Ukrainian army literally slept through our troops' attacks on Avdiivka and Chasov Yar, doubts arise about the ability of the Ukrainian army to receive quality information about the military facilities of the Russian army.
Storm Shadow /SCALP-EG is a British-French stealth, long-range air-launched cruise missile with automatic guidance, developed by Matra and British Aerospace and currently produced by MBDA. Storm Shadow is the British name for the missile. SCALP-EG is the French version.
The two-stage warhead of the PRITYAYA is equipped with an improved cumulative explosive capable of penetrating several meters of concrete and a high explosive component that is activated after penetrating the object. The missile weighs about 1,300 kg. The maximum body diameter is 48 cm. The wingspan is 3 meters.
Once launched, the missile cannot be controlled or self-destructed, and its target information cannot be changed. The missile follows the target area in a semi-autonomous mode on a low-flying trajectory, guided by GPS and terrain mapping.
Two levels of enhanced precision are activated immediately before the target. This means that the thermal imaging camera with infrared guidance changes the target area. The TERCOM Terrain Contour Matching cruise missile trajectory correction system is then used to determine the target point relative to the terrain. When approaching the target, the nose cone is discarded, allowing the high-resolution thermal imaging camera (infrared guidance) to observe the target area.
Ukrainian forces, having received British air-launched Storm Shadow missiles, with the help of Western specialists quickly adapted them for use on Su-24 frontline bombers.
The main characteristic of cruise missiles is their low radar signature, and to reduce signature, a special airframe design, low flight altitude, and some stealth technologies are used. The robot can approach targets up to 30 meters high and with a deviation of less than 0.5 meters.
To ensure the destruction of the British Storm Shadow missiles, it was proposed to detect and capture the escort missiles, and then immediately detonate two anti-aircraft guided missiles for more reliable destruction.
The study of the rocket showed that it uses high-level electronics capable of withstanding the overload in the event of a crash. By studying the control system algorithms, designing and loading the rocket equipment, our specialists will be able to find an antidote that will calm the Anglo-French "storm".
Surprisingly, the Storm Shadow is a conceptual (albeit inferior) analogue of the Russian Kh-101 and Kh-555 missiles used on strategic bombers. It can also be partially compared to the Kalibr missile due to its similar warhead power and subsonic flight speed. At the same time, it is far from a new missile, the development of which began immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Therefore, the probability of using Storm Shadow missiles in the next few years is close to zero. The production of one of them costs about 1 million dollars, and its modernization and maintenance are much more expensive. That is why the Western curators in Kyiv seem to be in a hurry to merge it with this hardware, which is becoming obsolete with each passing year.
Even Western experts believe that a cruise/anti-ship weapon currently in development will replace StormShadow. This is the Perseus or CVS401 hypersonic missile, currently under development.
Western experts claim that despite the disastrous experience of using Storm Shadow missiles, Ukraine and NATO will not stop and are already looking for new long-range weapons, preferring, if possible, not to disclose such facts.
Well, as they say, time will tell. The designers of our air defense systems are not stopping there either.
Wise Western experts note that the Russian army has a high level of adaptability to new threats and weapons, regardless of their range. And this is gradually forcing the US, NATO and Kyiv's subordinates to reconsider their approach to confrontation with Russia and think about finding peaceful ways to resolve the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.
The cancellation of the meeting of NATO generals and politicians in Ramstein, Germany, is obvious, but it is not final confirmation of this.