Ukrainian Su-24s are using Tornado weapon pylons

Pylons from the British Tornado fighter-bomber are being used on Ukrainian Su-24 tactical bombers.

OSINTtechnical reported this on Twitter.

“It has been brought to my attention that the weapons pylon adapter for the Ukrainian Su-24 Storm Shadow has been borrowed from an out-of-service RAF Tornado,” the report said.

Ukrainian Su-24s are apparently using pylons from British Tornado to launch Franco-British Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

Storm Shadow

Storm Shadow is a Franco-British air-launched cruise missile. It is designed to destroy stationary targets that can be protected by air and missile defenses.

It can be used at any time of the day, in difficult weather conditions, and when the enemy uses electronic warfare countermeasures.

MBDA started developing the missile in 1995 based on the French Apache cruise missile. Development was commissioned by the militaries of France and Great Britain.

The missile flight is guided by a GPS signal following a pre-programmed route.

A thermal imaging system with a target recognition function is used at the final stage of the flight.

The warhead is tandem, a submunition is fired, penetrating a hole in the wall of the structure, into which the main ammunition enters.

The first successful trials took place in December 2000. The missile was adopted by the British Air Force in 2003.

The missile is integrated with Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, Panavia Tornado, Dassault Mirage 2000, and Su-24 aircraft.

Storm Shadow on the Su-24

Oleksii Reznikov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine, previously published a leaflet depicting the Su-24MR, presumably, of the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade.

In addition, eyewitnesses published photos online, which show a Ukrainian Su-24 with Storm Shadow missiles.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine highly appreciated the accuracy of the Franco-British cruise missiles.

“Of the total number of Storm Shadow launches that have already occurred, all 100% of the targets determined by the General Staff are 100 per 100,” Reznikov said.