During the night of November 4, two Ukrainian SCALP or Storm Shadow missiles, evading anti-aircraft defenses, managed to hit a Russian corvette under repair at a shipyard on the Crimean peninsula.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces again attacked the Russian critical infrastructure in Crimea with a salvo of 15 Neptune (of Ukrainian origin) and Storm Shadow or SCALP missiles (supplied by the UK and France respectively) against the B.E. Butoma shipyard in the city of Kerch.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the attack, noting that its air defenses managed to shoot down 13 of the 15 missiles, but at least one of the two missiles that managed to sneak through hit the «Askold», a Project 22800-type missile corvette.
???? Regarding the missile attack in Kerch: information has appeared that the small missile ship «Askold» received at least three hits
This carrier of the “Caliber” cruise missiles is one of the newest and most modern ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It was laid down in 2016… pic.twitter.com/vAbyJpGbLF
— Cloooud |???????? (@GloOouD) November 4, 2023
«As a result of the impact of an enemy cruise missile, a ship located at the plant was damaged,» the statement reads.
See also: Germany will not deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine… for the time being
The level of damage to the Russian corvette is currently unknown, but satellite images will surely soon appear on the networks to dispel this doubt.
Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG cruise missile
Designed and produced by the European armament consortium (originally a Franco-British partnership) MBDA, the Storm Shadow / SCALP is the conventionally armed, air-launched, long-range (over 500 km in the French and English versions) deep strike weapon designed to meet the demanding requirements of pre-planned strikes against fixed or stationary high-value targets.
These missiles use a terrain reference navigation system and GPS, enabling it to engage targets with precision. Its primary targets are fixed assets such as command centers, bunkers and infrastructure.
Capable of operating in extreme conditions, the weapon offers operators a highly flexible deep strike capability based on a sophisticated mission planning system.
The Storm Shadow / SCALP was commissioned with the Royal Air Force and French Air Force in 2003 and used in the Gulf, Iraq and Libya. The platforms enabled to operate this weapon are the Tornado, Rafale, Mirage 2000, Eurofighter Typhoon and, recently, from the Sukhoi Su-24 and Su-27 of the Ukrainian Air Force.
