• France will send Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine, the second type of Western aircraft it will receive.
• Jets can carry Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles, and Ukrainian planes are reportedly equipped with them.
• The missiles frustrated the Russian military.

The new Mirage France combat aircraft promised Ukraine will provide it with another combat platform capable of launching the Western Storm Shadow missiles it uses to frustrate Russia.

Ukraine has long used Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles supplied by the United Kingdom and France to fight against the Russian invasionhitting various targets, notably Russian factories and, it seems, a navy warshipas well as fuel and ammunition depots.

Ukraine’s recently acquired American-made F-16s are not configured to fire Storm Shadows, making it dependent on its Soviet-designed Su-24 aircraft to launch them. The delivery of French Mirage 2000s would give it another aircraft capable of employing these weapons.

French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornuhas said earlier this month that his country intended to send French-made Mirage 2000s, made by Dassault Aviation, in the first half of 2025, and French newspaper La Tribune reported that these planes will be armed with Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles.

Tim Robinson, a military aviation specialist at the UK’s Royal Aeronautical Society, told BI that it would be beneficial for Ukraine to have more aircraft capable of launching missiles.

“Obviously you want to get the Storm Shadow, but you need an aerial platform to launch it,” he said, adding that the ability to launch it from a higher altitude offers greater range.

Capable cruise missiles

Retired U.S. Army Major General Gordon “Skip” Davis, who served as NATO’s deputy secretary general for its defense investment division, told BI that “it’s a good thing that the planes are capable of launching the SCALP”. cruise missiles.”

“It’s a big deal,” he said, explaining that the “biggest thing” with the Mirages promised to Ukraine is that they will already be capable of launching the Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles supplied by the United Kingdom and France.

The stealthy air-launched cruise missiles were jointly developed by the United Kingdom and France and manufactured by European multinational defense company MBDA. While the UK calls them Storm Shadows, France calls these weapons SCALP missiles.

The long-range missiles can hit targets up to 155 miles from where they are launched. Each missile costs nearly a million dollars, according to the BBC.

The United Kingdom was the first country to give kyiv is the weapon, with the first deliveries of Storm Shadows/SCALP taking place in May 2023. France announced deliveries two months later, in July. Since the first deliveries, these missiles have become a key weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal.

New fighter planes

The La Tribune report indicates that France will deliver the first three Mirage planes to Ukraine in the first quarter of next year. France did not specify how many it would send.

It is unclear how many Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles France could commit to this effort. It is also unclear how many missiles Ukraine currently has. Ukraine often ends up running out of key types of weapons before its allies decide to replenish its stocks.

But even if its new jets allow it to achieve more, the weapon’s impact could be muted unless allies change their long-standing position that Ukraine is not allowed to use the weapons long-range that it sends to strike Russian territory.

Ukraine has long requested permission to use Storm Shadows/SCALP to strike military targets in Russia, with many war experts saying the restrictions give Russia a huge advantage because Ukraine must stop attacks after their launch instead of destroying the attacks at the source. .

Policy reported In August, a Biden administration national security official said Russian forces had moved some of their military assets out of range of Ukraine-supplied Storm Shadow/SCALP and ATACMS missiles.

The UK indicated in September that talks with the US on whether to allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadows/SCALPS to strike Ukraine were ongoing.

As for why the United States is involved, they have to give permission because Storm Shadows has a U.S. system on board to thwart Russian jamming efforts.

France has said Ukraine should be allowed to strike military targets in Russia with its long-range weapons, but it has not indicated it would try to circumvent U.S. restrictions.

Regardless, the Mirage will be “value-added” for Ukraine, Gordon said.

He criticized the timing of the decision to send them, but said they would continue to help Ukraine. “It would have been nice if they had thought of this maybe a year and a half ago, so they could fly now, but they offer key advantages,” he said.