How Russian targets are destroyed: the first video of Storm Shadow launches from Ukrainian Su-24s

The Ukrainian Air Force released footage of the launch of French-British Storm Shadow/SCALP EG cruise missiles at enemy targets.

The video was posted on the Ukrainian Air Force’s official Facebook page.

This is the first official footage capturing a live launch of this type of missile.

The video is special because the first fragment shows a paired launch of missiles, carried out when the task is to break through enemy air defense.

It should be noted that the suspension of the Storm Shadow/SCALP EG missiles was made possible by the British side’s transfer of universal firing devices used on British Panavia Tornado fighter-bombers.

The firing devices were mounted on sub-console hardpoints. They were connected to the onboard power supply to enable all missile systems and launch.

The second part of the video shows missiles being launched at intervals of several seconds, which may indicate that they were launched at one target.

It should be noted that since the missiles were not integrated into the aircraft’s weapons control system, coordinate input, system preparation, and testing occurred before the aircraft took off at the airfield.

The governments of the United Kingdom and France announced the transfer of this type of missile in May 2023.

In April 2024, Italy, which probably had been supplying missiles to Ukraine even before the official announcement, also joined the transfer.

The British government believes that the Storm Shadow/SCALP EG missiles have demonstrated incredibly high efficiency in Ukraine, and therefore plans to resume production, which was closed due to a lack of orders.

Storm Shadow missiles are assembled at the British company MBDA UK, located near the city of Stevenage.