French President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday, on the first day of the NATO summit, that France will provide long-range “Scalp” missiles to Ukraine.
The first missiles have already been delivered, according to a military source from BFMTV. The total number of missiles to be supplied to Ukraine has not been disclosed, but according to this source, their number is “quite significant”. However, French stocks will be retained.
“I think that what is important for us today is to send a message of support for Ukraine, of NATO unity,” added Emmanuel Macron from Vilnius. The Kremlin immediately reacted by warning that these French renditions are a “mistake” that will force Russia to take “countermeasures” in the Ukraine conflict.
a stealth missile
The scalp is the French version of storm shadow British that London has already supplied to Kyiv. These long-range weapons can hit targets up to 500 kilometers away. Stealthy, they circulate at more than 1000 km/h (Mach 0.80) at 30 meters of cruising altitude. Its flight path is guided by GPS.
This missile was developed in the 1990s by Matra and British Aerospace and later manufactured by MBDA in two versions: Scalp for France and Storm Shadow for the British.
Other versions were developed for export with a limited range of 250 kilometers and different names. In the United Arab Emirates it is called the Black Shaheen and was fitted to Mirage 2000s.
german patriots
In Vilnius, Germany announced a new arms delivery for an amount of 700 million euros in weapons. This new shipment includes launchers for the Patriot air defense system, Marder type armored vehicles and Leopard 1 A5 tanks and artillery shells.
Second largest contributor in terms of military aid to Ukraine after the US, Berlin last May announced arms deliveries worth 2.7 billion euros.
On July 7, ahead of the Vilnius summit, the United States announced a new “security assistance” program that could reach as much as $800 million. The goal, according to the Department of Defense (DoD), is to “provide key capabilities to support Ukraine’s counteroffensive operations and defend against Russia’s aggressive warfare.”
American cluster bombs
This package includes munitions for US-supplied Patriot air defense systems, high-mobility artillery rockets, and cluster bombs that the Pentagon is supplying to Ukraine for the first time.
These weapons have been banned by more than a hundred countries since 2008 (except the United States, Russia, and Ukraine) due to their long-term danger to the civilian population. According to the Pentagon, the models delivered would have a misfire rate (unexploded submunitions) of 2.35%.
Source: BFM TV
