Irish troops from militarily neutral Irland started training Ukrainian forces in non-aligned Cyprus. What exactly stops neutral Austria from doing the same?@veitdengler @HoansSolo @GresselGustav https://t.co/GIGCJ4tmVJ
— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) May 11, 2023
Thread 🧵on the Storm Shadow land-attack cruise missile delivered by the UK that provides Ukraine, in principle, with an extremely potent long-range strike capability against hardened targets at operational and strategic depth. 1/12 pic.twitter.com/Jcm179wAOZ
— Fabian Hoffmann (@FRHoffmann1) May 11, 2023
Storm Shadow is equipped with a TR60-30 Turbojet engine, providing it with a range of 250-400 km. The variant delivered to Ukraine is likely to be at a lower end of this spectrum, similar to the Black Shaheen export version (290 km range) delivered to the UAE. 3/12 pic.twitter.com/QtHUjjTxqd
— Fabian Hoffmann (@FRHoffmann1) May 11, 2023
This warhead design allows cruise missiles to achieve the degree of hard-target penetration formerly only possible using laser-guided gravity bombs. As such, Storm Shadow constitutes an incredibly effective weapon against hardened targets, if it can be brought to its target. 5/12 pic.twitter.com/DTwtAbnW7B
— Fabian Hoffmann (@FRHoffmann1) May 11, 2023
For midcourse guidance, Storm Shadow employs a triple navigation system using inertial navigation, GPS, & Terrain Reference Navigation. For terminal guidance, it uses an imaging infrared seeker & automated target recognition software for pin-point accuracy (in theory). 7/12 pic.twitter.com/uOmyjOA94U
— Fabian Hoffmann (@FRHoffmann1) May 11, 2023
So far, this war has demonstrated that low-flying, subsonic vehicles can be intercepted, perhaps more easily than priorly assumed. If this S-300 has indeed shot down 22 Kalibr cruise missiles, there is no reason to assume that Russian S-300s cannot intercept Storm Shadows. 9/12 pic.twitter.com/SxY9B0yf9f
— Fabian Hoffmann (@FRHoffmann1) May 11, 2023
Talking about Kerch Bridge: The combination of pinpoint accuracy and hard-target kill capability renders Storm Shadow a much more potent weapon against the bridge than ATACMS could, in principle, ever be. See the thread below on ATACMS’ shortcomings. 11/12https://t.co/AbUiOJRjuS
— Fabian Hoffmann (@FRHoffmann1) May 11, 2023
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