[Goose]

It sounds like the UK will give Ukraine Storm Shadow cruise missiles.  It looks like there are two versions, one version has a range of 350 miles, while the export version has a range of 155 miles.  The UK has as many as 1000 of these, and France also has stocks of them, but given they cost over a million each, I'd assume supplies will be limited.  

Goose, do you have any thoughts on these, will they make a big difference?  I'd assume there's a way to put these on Ukrainian airframes, otherwise there would be no point.  I doubt these will be used to take out the Kerch bridge, but they could come in handy taking out known high value targets out of HIMARS range, especially in the lead up to the counter offensive, if they arrive on time.

I don't expect any of them will arrive "soon". It would be nice to be wrong about that, but I expect it to be the case. I am also less than impressed with the results obtained by grafting on NATO weapons to MIGs. It isn't easy to do and appears to have resulted in significantly lower performance from the weapons. I am sure this isn't due to misuse, but rather the limitations of the weapon's integration into the platform. Neither JDAMs nor HARMs have really "jumped out" as success stories.

The Storm Shadow can be ground launched, which may allow for more launchers and a fully end-to-end weapons system. Not sure the intent here by the UK. The ability to hold at risk Russian logistics and C3I locations further behind the front would help a lot. Potentially equally important it could hold at risk time-sensitive targets, like trains unloading troops/material in rear areas. Ukraine has lots of HUMINT to help with this. However, the gorilla in the room may become GPS denial by the Russians. If the missiles aren't accurate, they won't help nearly as much.

My personal opinion is that a Storm Shadow may never actually be used in Ukraine, BUT what it does do is apply pressure/give a rationale for the US to deliver ATACMS. If Storm Shadow is already on the way, we aren't "changing the game". Challenger tanks all over again. It worked once, so why not try it again? Makes lots more sense to provide a missile that already has launchers integrated into the Ukrainian ORBAT than to do an entire parallel universe. We shall see.

[Goose]

It sounds like the UK will give Ukraine Storm Shadow cruise missiles.  It looks like there are two versions, one version has a range of 350 miles, while the export version has a range of 155 miles.  The UK has as many as 1000 of these, and France also has stocks of them, but given they cost over a million each, I'd assume supplies will be limited.  

Goose, do you have any thoughts on these, will they make a big difference?  I'd assume there's a way to put these on Ukrainian airframes, otherwise there would be no point.  I doubt these will be used to take out the Kerch bridge, but they could come in handy taking out known high value targets out of HIMARS range, especially in the lead up to the counter offensive, if they arrive on time.

I don't expect any of them will arrive "soon". It would be nice to be wrong about that, but I expect it to be the case. I am also less than impressed with the results obtained by grafting on NATO weapons to MIGs. It isn't easy to do and appears to have resulted in significantly lower performance from the weapons. I am sure this isn't due to misuse, but rather the limitations of the weapon's integration into the platform. Neither JDAMs nor HARMs have really "jumped out" as success stories.

The Storm Shadow can be ground launched, which may allow for more launchers and a fully end-to-end weapons system. Not sure the intent here by the UK. The ability to hold at risk Russian logistics and C3I locations further behind the front would help a lot. Potentially equally important it could hold at risk time-sensitive targets, like trains unloading troops/material in rear areas. Ukraine has lots of HUMINT to help with this. However, the gorilla in the room may become GPS denial by the Russians. If the missiles aren't accurate, they won't help nearly as much.

My personal opinion is that a Storm Shadow may never actually be used in Ukraine, BUT what it does do is apply pressure/give a rationale for the US to deliver ATACMS. If Storm Shadow is already on the way, we aren't "changing the game". Challenger tanks all over again. It worked once, so why not try it again? Makes lots more sense to provide a missile that already has launchers integrated into the Ukrainian ORBAT than to do an entire parallel universe. We shall see.