Last month, France announced it is giving Ukraine around 40 more SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles. The long-range missiles have enabled Ukraine to hit targets deep behind Russia’s lines. Sources say that the Russians have improved their capability to intercept this precise and dangerous threat.
The Ukrainians are desperate to get similar missiles like the Taurus from Germany, probably because they have almost exhausted the British-French cooperation of Storm Shadow and SCALP.
Storm Shadow/SCALP is the air-launched, long-range, conventionally armed, deep strike weapon, designed to meet the demanding requirements of pre-planned attacks against high-value fixed or stationary targets.
The Ukrainians asked Germany for the Taurus, a German-Swedish air-launched cruise missile, but this request has been turned down. Sources say that this missile is more powerful and can destroy heavily protected targets. The Germans, according to sources, are also afraid the Taurus will fall into Russian hands.
Shortly after the war broke out, Ukraine asked Israel for advanced weapon systems. The list included Israeli-made, air-launched, very precise weapons like the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Rampage air-ground missile.
Israel refused to sell such weapon systems to Ukraine in order to keep the “special relations” with Moscow that enable Israel to attack shipments of Iranian-made weapons from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon, via Syria, where there is a massive Russian military presence.
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