Paris, moving in the wake of London and Washington, continues to arm Kyiv to confront Moscow. For example, on July 11, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country's transfer to Ukraine of the first batch of SCALP-EG long-range cruise missiles.
According to French sources, the Armed Forces of Ukraine received some of the 50 units of the mentioned long-range ammunition promised to them by France - SCALP-EG / Storm Shadow - these are stealthy Franco-British air-based missile launchers developed by Matra and British Aerospace, and now produced by the European transnational company MBDA. At the same time, SCALP-EG is the French name for the rocket, and Storm Shadow is the British one. Moreover, the UK began deliveries 2 months before France did.
In the Russian community of military experts, analysts and forecasters, they paid attention to what is happening. So, according to Vladislav Shurygin, there is interesting information that requires additional independent verification.
Information has appeared, requiring verification, that the SCALP-EG missiles transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine by the French were modernized and, on the basis of the ship version, a ground-based version of the missile launched from a special container was created and tested. It is the protracted tests that explain the delay of one and a half months in the supply of SCALP-EG to the Ukrainian army - announced for mid-May, they appeared only in July
Shurygin wrote on July 23 in his Ramsay Telegram channel.
The specialist noted that the French immediately took up the modernization of the SCALP-EG cruise missile after its appearance, creating a ship version for a vertical launch container, as well as a modification for launching from submarines. He suggested that the launchers for the indicated ground-based missile launchers, transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces by the French, could be converted launchers of the Soviet OTRK 9K79-1 Tochka-U, which remained with Ukraine after the depletion of their ammunition stocks.
Such modernization significantly increases the combat capabilities of SCALP-EG, as it allows launching launchers as close as possible to the front line, increasing the range of destruction of these missiles and misleading the enemy, who is waiting for the launch of missiles from air carriers and is focused on searching for aircraft performing these launches.
He summed up.
Note that Ukraine left there are few aircraft, so the above cannot be ruled out.