Storm Shadow

Storm Shadow is a British, French and Italian air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by MBDA. Storm Shadow is the British name for the weapon; in French service it is called SCALP EG (Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée – Emploi Général, meaning General Purpose Long Range Standoff Cruise Missile). The missile is based on the earlier MBDA Apache anti-runway missile, and differs in that it carries a warhead, rather than submunitions.

Characteristics
The stealthy missile has a range of approximately 500 km, is powered by a turbojet at Mach 0.8 and can be carried by the RAF Tornado GR4, Saab Gripen, Italian Tornado IDS, Dassault Mirage 2000 and Dassault Rafale aircraft. Storm Shadow will be integrated with the Eurofighter Typhoon as part of the Phase 2 Enhancement (P2E) in 2014, and it will be fitted to the F-35 Lightning II once that aircraft comes into service. The BROACH warhead features an initial penetrating charge to clear soil or enter a bunker, then a variable delay fuze to control detonation of the main warhead. The missile weighs about 1300 kg, has a maximum body diameter of 48 cm and a wingspan of 3 m. Intended targets are command, control and communications; airfields; ports and power stations; AMS/ammunition storage; ships/submarines in port; bridges and other high-value strategic targets.

It is a fire and forget missile, programmed before launch. Once launched, the missile cannot be controlled, its target information changed or be self-destructed. Mission planners programme the missile with the target air defences and target. The missile follows a path semi-autonomously, on a low flight path guided by GPS and terrain matching to the area of the target. Close to the target, the missile climbs and then bunts into a dive. Climbing to altitude is intended to achieve the best probability of target identification and penetration. During the bunt, the nose cone is jettisoned to allow a high resolution infrared camera to observe the target area. The missile then tries to locate its target based upon its targeting information. If it can not, and there is a high risk of collateral damage, it will fly to a crash point instead of risking inaccuracy.

History
British Aerospace and Matra were competing with McDonnell Douglas, Texas Instruments/Short Brothers, Hughes/Smiths Industries, Daimler-Benz Aerospace/Bofors, GEC-Marconi and Rafael. The BAe/Matra Storm Shadow was selected on 25 June 1996. A development and production contract was signed on 11 February 1997, by which time Matra and BAe had completed the merger of their missile businesses to form Matra BAe Dynamics. France ordered 500 SCALP missiles in January 1998.

The first successful fully guided firing of the Storm Shadow/SCALP EG took place at the CEL Biscarosse range in France at the end of December 2000 from a Mirage 2000N. The first British firing occurred on 25 May 2001 from a Tornado flying from BAE Warton.

Storm Shadow entered service with the Royal Air Force in late 2001. It was first used during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by No. 617 Squadron.

During the NATO intervention in the Libyan civil war, the Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG was fired at pro-Gaddafi targets by French Air Force Rafales and Italian Air Force and Royal Air Force  Tornadoes. Targets included the Al Jufra Air Base. and a military bunker in Sirte, the home town of Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. On the 14 December 2011, Italian Defence Officials noted that Italian Tornado IDS aircraft had fired between 20 and 30 Storm Shadows during the Libyan Campaign. This was the first time that Italian aircraft had fired the missile in live combat, and it was reported the missile had a 97 per cent success rate.

Future development
MBDA has developed a longer-range sea-launched variant for the French Navy, called Missile de Croisière Naval (MdCN standing for Naval Cruise Missile). It will be deployed on FREMM multipurpose frigates (from 2014) and on Barracuda class submarines (from 2017), using the A70 version of the Sylver launcher on the former and the 533 mm torpedo tubes on the latter. As the missile is not launched from a plane, as is SCALP/Storm Shadow, a booster has been included. The submarine version is encapsulated in an hydrodynamic hard container which is ejected when the missile reaches the surface. To provide a comparable range to the BGM-109 Tomahawk, the range of the MdCN (well over 1000 km) is significantly larger than the SCALP/Storm Shadow.

France originally ordered 50 MdCN for its FREMM frigates in 2006, with delivery expected in 2012. A further 100 surface-launched missiles were ordered in 2009, along with 50 for the planned Barracuda-class submarines. The €1.2bn (FY2011) project will deliver 200 missiles at a unit cost of €2.48m (~US$3.3m), or €6m (~US$8m) including development costs.

MdCN first flight test from a vertical launcher took place on 28 May 2010 and its first submarine launch test took place on 8 June 2011. MdCN 's first complete qualification firing took place on 9 July 2012 at the Biscarosse test range. During its third development firing, MdCN met all its test requirements perfectly including the validation of the terminal autonomously guided phase with IR target scenario reconnaissance, which provides the weapon with its exceptionally high precision. On 24 October 2012, MdCN was tested "end-to-end" in the submarine launch configuration for the first time, adjacent to the Île du Levant test centre.

Inventory
The following countries have ordered Storm Shadow / SCALP / MdCN, in these quantities:
 * 🇫🇷: 500 ordered in January 1998 for the French Air Force; 50 MdCNs ordered in 2006 and 100 more in 2009 for the French Navy
 * : 90 for the Hellenic Air Force
 * 🇮🇹: 200 for the Aeronautica Militare
 * : 350 missiles for US $1.8 billion deal to supply the Royal Saudi Air Force.
 * 🇦🇪: Undisclosed number of the variant called Black Shaheen
 * : 900 for the Royal Air Force.