Behind Ukraine’s Weapons: Storm Shadow, ATACMS, StarStreak Missiles and More | WSJ Equipped

Army tactical missile systems, cluster bombs, and star streak

missiles

—these are all

weapons

Ukraine has been using since Russia invaded the country in early 2022. We break down Ukraine's Armory from technology to its potential impact. First we look at the $1 million Storm Shadow missile. Is the Storm Shadow cruise missile the weapon that gives Ukraine the strike range it needs for its counteroffensive? These high-precision

weapons

have a range of over 155 thousand, three times that of Mars in Ukraine, with that kind of range these weapons are forcing. Moscow must reconsider its logistics. Here's how these long-range deep strike

missiles

work and why Storm Shadow is

equipped

to take out key Russian command and control centers.

Storm Shadow's range allows Ukraine to target all of this territory that you see here, so if Look here at this map of the front lines that includes places in Crimea like, you know, Berans, where there's a lot of command control with a miniature jet engine, lightweight materials and autonomous navigation systems. Storm Shadow can travel far beyond line of sight. of the launch aircraft to complete its mission, the missile's 155-mile range is what helped Ukraine reach this bridge

more

than 100 miles from the front lines on which Russian troops have depended for supplies in the territory of hon. and it zaps, but the power of the missile is not only its range, its pre-programmed orientation is also very precise, it is what we call fire and forget once you pre-program it and launch it, it does not require any update or communication from the operator in comparison to unguided artillery or rockets that can target a In a general area such as an airbase, the targeting of a Storm Shadow can be as precise as a specific hangar at that airbase.

This is possible because the missile is

equipped

with three different types of GPS navigation and the terrain contour that matches the inertial navigation system is a collection of onboard motion sensors that tracks the orientation and speed of the missile by calculating its location without satellites, but airs can infiltrate the system with longer missions, so Storm Shadow also receives regular GPS updates, obviously the most accurate way to do this would be if you just connect the missile to the GPS live feed and receives updates constantly, but GPS can make the missile vulnerable to counterattacks, so it's dangerous to do it in a combat environment because you have electronic warfare countermeasures.

In some cases, they can spoof a GPS signal, so do it. tell it you are somewhere where it is not the third type is matching the terrain contour using an altimeter to help establish your location, Storm Shadow measures changes in the elevation of the terrain below it and compares it to its database on board at all times while the missile flies The terrain hugs the altitude, one of many features that help Storm Shadow evade radar detection, making it difficult to shoot down when something flies high. You can see it from a great distance. If something flies very low, it becomes difficult to see because you don't. have a clear line of sight, experts say Storm Shadow also appears to be equipped with additional countermeasures that make it even

more

difficult to intercept, although the exact type is not publicly revealed.

In general, missile countermeasures can include things like infrared decoys, right flares, right things that will deflect a sinking infrared interceptor missile once the missile identifies and hits its target. Experts say the Shadow Storm impact is comparatively more lethal against hardened targets due to a feature called delayed detonation when the missile hits its target, a smaller initial charge will detonate by pushing through walls or reinforcements, this will allow the warhead main warhead penetrates deeply into the target, only then will that main warhead detonate. The delay is usually milliseconds apart, but even that small amount of time allows for devastating effects.

Think about it this way if you have a firecracker. in your hand and you light it and it explodes you know you're going to end up with a nasty burn on your hand if you close that firecracker around your fist and it explodes you'll probably lose your hand these capabilities have range of accuracy and lethal impact allowed Ukrainian forces to attack buildings in the occupied parts of Ukraine, a Storm Shadow-related attack was reportedly able to hit a hotel about 95M behind the front lines, killing a Russian general. The lieutenant general, so this attack in June marks the highest-ranking casualty among the Russians. forces so we can see the accuracy of the weapon in operation, being able to hit the specific part of the building you want to hit and even go after targets as specific as individuals, but the estimated cost of a Storm Shadow is more than 1 million dollars per unit, a of the most expensive attack munitions that Ukraine currently possesses.

All of these features require expensive high-end technology, so in many ways it has more in common with the build of an iPhone than an artillery shell, and that cost leads to one. One of the biggest limitations that Ukraine has with Storm Shadow: its number of units. Britain has not published the number of Storm Shadows sent before the war. Defense intelligence companies estimated that the UK had approximately 822 Storm Shadows in its Arsenal, just one example of how shallow Storm Shadow Supply is during the 2011 Libya intervention that brought down Muammar Gaddafi, the UK and France. ran out of precision guided munitions, including Storm Shadows, only a small fraction of an already small pile will go to Ukraine, it is widely understood that Ukraine has far fewer

storm

s.

Shadows Himar Rockets analysts say Ukraine should be strategic about how and when to use Storm Shadows as a specialized piece of equipment. They are not designed for massive bombing as you might see with Artill. They are precision surgical instruments for the battlefield. They go after the high. they value time sensitive target targets, they can't just use them to fire some random piece of Russian artillery behind the lines and it's not just the number of missiles because it's an air launched missile. Ukraine also needs to take stock of its aircraft. Ukrainian air supply. Force began the war with only about 100 fighter planes and only a small portion of them are Sue 24s capable of firing Storm Shadow.

Storm Shadow is equipping Ukraine with a critical capability at an important time in its counteroffensive, but the effort is moving slowly, most of the supplies are coming this way, so by attacking the corridors that these supplies move through , can slow down and complicate the delivery of ammunition. Williams said that for this strategy to be effective, Ukraine will need more long range. Options Currently the United Kingdom and France are the only countries that supply Ukraine with such missiles as the Storm Shadow and the almost identical Scalp missile. Germany has so far rejected a Ukrainian request for its tourist cruise missiles that have an even longer range of nearly 300 miles. and the Biden Administration is still deliberating whether to send its equivalent weaponry, the Army's tactical missile system, or strikes with a range of about 190 Mi such as a truck-launched rocket, the addition offers more opportunities for use, requires much less train logistical, you know no It is not necessary to support a fighter aircraft, there is no need for bases that can be in the field, yet these long-range missiles in Ukraine come with parameters when the UK defense secretary announced that the country was supplying Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, said the weapons will allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces based on sovereign Ukrainian territory, implying a long-standing red line between the West to avoid targets inside Russia, but even with only the Shadow of the Storm Ukraine has begun to complicate the flow of supplies from Russia to the front lines.

The Storm Shatter missile has had a significant impact on the battlefield. As I understand it, its accuracy and its ability to successfully deliver the payload as it was shipped and designed. I think the key here is to recognize that if the Russians get out of hand, we need to work together internationally. to ensure that the equipment is delivered to ensure that they are back within range Ukrainian forces have repeatedly asked the US to provide it to them. They are the army's tactical missile system. Attack them. For short, these missiles may come equipped with a 500-pound class fragmentation warhead and have a maximum range of approximately 190 M, which could allow Ukrainian forces to reach further into Russian-controlled territories within Ukraine, including Crimea, in September US officials said they would send a small number of attack missiles to Ukraine in the coming weeks after discussing the risk of escalating tensions.

With Russia and worrying about its small domestic arsenal, we have been supplying Ukraine with items from our junk drawer rather than high-end missile capability. Here's how these missiles could accelerate Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russia and why the US was initially hesitant to send strikes on them. The Army's primary surface-to-surface attack system allows them to be mobile, disperse, hiding in terrain and disorder, uh, and being able to impose certain types of uncertainty on the enemy about where they're coming from. The attack is designed to be launched from a ground vehicle such as the US Himar already in Ukraine.

Once the missile is fired, the ground vehicle can fire and move to avoid retaliatory attacks. This could be a huge advantage for Ukrainian forces who have been using a similar missile, the UK's Storm Shadow, which is fired from an airborne aircraft, simply offers another level of flexibility for counteroffensive than the other systems that require launch by air limit, where and when the Ukrainians can use them. They need that aerial platform that essentially strengthens. Ground Forces to take these launchers anywhere they need them, one of the interesting features of the tall Mars launcher is that it doesn't reveal exactly what missile it's carrying, that's advantageous because assuming an enemy is watching, you won't necessarily know what it is. inside and you won't know if it has a higher value than the shorter range material, this gives the Ukrainians the added advantage of firing missiles from multiple types of domains including air and ground, but the mobility of the haar means that the Ukrainians could get closer to Russia. territory by further increasing the range of the missiles AAM missiles can reach up to 190 Mi, considerably farther than Storm Shadows' maximum range of 155 miles.

There are all kinds of operational advantages to that greater range that allows, for example, Ukrainian forces to fire from safer territory so they don't have to walk to the Russian lines to be able to attack something deeper, this additional range could force Moscow to move storage facilities and command centers more than 200 miles from the front and that could complicate efforts to supply troops with food and ammunition to feed the Ukrainians in their counteroffensive, plus this weapon could be useful in getting the Ukrainians to target Within some of these Russian hellish territories, specifically the Crimean strikes can also move significantly faster than other missiles, reaching a top speed of Mach 3 or around 2,300 mph in contrast cruise missiles like the Storm Shadow or the KH.

Russia's 101s, for example, have top speeds of only about 600 to 700 mph. The speed of the attacks is simply a function of the fact that it is a ballistic missile with a large single-stage rocket motor on the back. so this speed is useful for time-critical targets, things that can move and that must be attacked very quickly. The attack guidance system combines inertial navigation with GPS. This creates highly precise targeting that prevents electronic jamming and jamming and minimizes collateral damage in impact attacks. Also designed with Adept features to hit multiple types of targets, these missiles are highly maneuverable in the air, allowing them to hit targets from a variety of angles.

A simple ballistic missile will travel on a ballistic trajectory it will just follow the rainbow of gravity uh something that is very predictable uh and curved the benefit of maneuverability is that you can interrupt that rainbow you can come down in a different way you can maneuver to be more uh On target you can go after maybe a moving target and correct mistakes and yes, you can come down, vertically, if you want, that vertical impact can be useful to get right over thetarget and make it much more difficult for him to see it coming or hit the vulnerable point of an armored vehicle that the attack missiles can contain. one of two types of unary warheads or submunitions a unitary warhead is exactly what it looks like it's a big explosive it's in one piece submunitions or mini bombs are also what they look like uh a lot of little things that spread around there are advantages to both depending on what that you are aiming inside an attack submunition.

The warhead is hundreds of steel-cased balls filled with incendiary shot that could be crudely compared to a shotgun blast where it has a large explosive impact on the target and then there is a unitary warhead that is crudely like a single pistol bullet. Unary warheads are better at targeting specific individual targets, while some munitions. Warheads are very effective against moving personnel and equipment. Unitary and submunitions are designed for different things, but both can work. after many different targets, what we don't know is what variant they would provide or what combination of variants they would provide to the Ukrainians, despite requests from Ukraine the US was hesitant to send strikes until now there were concerns about an escalation of the conflict with The Russians are concerned that the Ukrainians could use these attacks that have this long range and are aimed inside Russian territory, but we are also at a point in the counteroffensive that has gone much slower than anyone expected, so the United States may be digging deeper into its pockets and greenlighting other weapons systems it didn't want to provide before, given time constraints, the Biden administration faced increased pressure from Ukraine and Congress to send missile attachments to Congress in June past. signed a bipartisan resolution in favor of sending attachés to Ukraine and the Administration has changed course on weapons before, such as with the Abrams tank, but officials have also expressed concern about the US domestic attack on their arsenals.

Security needs with those of Ukraine and Europe in general and the United States simply does not have many of these around, they have been out of production to some extent, for some time, this recent change comes shortly after an army officer from The US said the replacement missile for the strikes, the Prism, will go out of production and enter US stockpiles in the near future. The prism or precision strike missile can reach over 300 thousand, which is significantly further than strikes that can also mitigate some of the impact on the US inventory to provide the strikes is opening the door to potentially provide them now , this

starstreak

missile travels at more than three times the speed of sound and, after a decades-long hiatus, is entering playback after the United Kingdom sent up Cold War-era stockpiles. weapon for Ukraine this lightweight Man portable air defense system is a short-range missile that can travel approximately 4.3 miles and shoot down aircraft such as fighter drones or ground attack aircraft and helicopters, which is why the star streak may be more useful on the front lines, Ukrainian soldiers.

They leave the bubble of protection provided by long-range missiles as they advance, but can carry light Star Streak missiles with them or equip them on tanks like the British Alvis Stormer. Here's how the missile works and how it can uniquely equip Ukraine's air defense at about 2,300 mph, the Star Streak travels 100 mph faster than the Stinger, a similar American missile at that speed, targets probably won't have time enough to react and evade the missile, making the Star Streak potentially more lethal. Targets also have to withstand being hit by not just one warhead, but three, unlike the Stinger and other missiles in this class, the Star Streak launches three tungsten darts toward the target after it is launched.

Having three darts explains the failure of the warhead, even if one dart is defective, there are still two others once the darts reach the target, they embed themselves in it and explode, this maximizes the chance of the target being destroyed, but the Key distinguishing factor between the Star Streak and other man-portable missiles is its guidance system. Most, including the Stinger, are heat seeking, meaning they use infrared systems to track the target. target, but heat-seeking missiles are susceptible to countermeasures like flares because these other missiles track the hottest object found in flares can guide the missile away from the heat of the aircraft engine and toward the flare, but the star streak It does not seek heat, it is a laser.

Guided after launching the missile, the gunman projects a laser beam onto the target for the three darts to follow. This laser-guided system is precise and means the Star Streak cannot be locked or attracted, but is comparable to fire-and-forget missiles like the Star Stinger. The Streak requires more training to use and places a greater burden on the operator and this manual tracking means it is more effective for slower moving targets, as long as Russia believes Ukraine has Star Streak missiles, it may be less willing. to fly into Ukrainian airspace for fear of receiving missiles. shot down and the Star Streak is uniquely equipped to handle the newest tactics deployed on the front lines, including drones due to its low heat signature.

The drones can evade heat-absorbing missiles, but are easily shot down by Star Streak missiles if the operators can still detect them. Training soldiers in the Star Streak is not the biggest obstacle for Ukraine, the main problem is simply supply. The Star Streak was designed by arms manufacturer Short Brothers in the 1980s for the British government during the Cold War and did not enter active service until 2003 in the Iraq War and then in 2012 went out of mass production, but That same year soldiers in London were equipped with Star Streak missiles to protect the city in case of an attack during the Olympic Games.

Experts believe that C production was stopped because man-portable missiles such as the Star Streak and Stinger missiles were thought to be less crucial to the defense needs of the United Kingdom and the United States at the time, but Britain retained its stockpiles after that the United Kingdom and the United States denied Ukraine's request to create a no-fly zone over the country that the United Kingdom sent. These missiles will help keep Ukrainian airspace free of Russian aircraft, so in response to Ukrainian requests, the government has made the decision to explore donating Star Streak High Velocity Man portable anti-UH missiles.

Demand has led French arms manufacturer Talis to renew its production of Star Streak missiles, but like many weapons manufacturers, Talis has supply chain problems. These complications mean that relaunching the Star Streak could take more than a year since last March. The United Kingdom has sent numerous air defense systems and more than 10,000 missiles, although the exact number of Star Streak missiles is unknown. It is unknown or unclear how many Star Streak missiles Ukraine has left or when it will receive more, but experts say the country is strategically calm about its air defense systems. Star Streak missiles are just a type of man-portable missile, which is just a type of short-range missile, which is just a method of air defense.

Experts say it's good practice to have multiple options to solve the same problem, which is why Ukraine has ordered a variety of weapons. Counter offensive, better control of the best P analysts have called this rocket bm21. launcher the AK47 artillery because it has been used in almost every armed conflict since 1969 and at this moment both Ukraine and Russia are using Soviet-era weapons. Experts say it was technologically obsolete in the 9s, so why is this 60-year-old rocket launcher everywhere? In this war, the BM21 can fire up to 40 unguided rockets in 20 seconds. The rockets are nearly 10 feet tall and are typically armed with high-explosive fragmentation warheads.

When the 40s fall, they can cover an area almost as large as 10 football fields. This heavy, indiscriminate bombardment is what gave the BM21 the nickname Russian grad for hail. It's what makes grad effective even today. The grad is often used to suppress fire. A tactic to provide cover for forces and weaken the enemy before another attack. The mm rockets have a range of 12 Mi, although some can reach up to 25, so Ukraine has mainly used them on the front lines to attack Russian artillery and infantry batteries, while Russia has fired them against cities such as Hon, where a rocket attack killed five people and harff among experts say the Grad's main flaw is the defining part of its design that it does not have a guidance system after loading the rockets, an operator calculates the coordinates of the target and hands them to the gunman, who adjusts the launcher and The operator sets the number of rockets and fires them.

The results are not precise. Here you can see the possibility of a graduated rocket directly hitting an adult human. The target is larger, up to 32 feet away by 328 feet. A graduated explosive warhead, however, is almost certain to fail. It has a lethal area radius of about 50 feet and can still severely maim someone within 100 feet, but this lack of precision is why it needs so many rockets to be truly effective and that is a problem for Ukraine because analysts They believe the country's original arsenal is already The United States said it had supplied Ukraine with 60,000-degree rockets, but in August, on the ground, some brigades in Ukraine circulated with empty launchers and others said they were conserving ammunition by choosing targets more selective.

Some Ukrainian soldiers also took rocket launchers and placed them in the back of pickup trucks creating a mini grad, these fire at a shorter distance and use only three rockets at a time, but analysts say these measures may not be worth it as The grad rocket is an unguided soldier that risks missing its target completely, effectively wasting Due to its limited supply of ammunition, the weapon has multiplied around the world and in the arsenals of more than 50 countries with variants such as the Chinese type 81 and the Czech rm70, but according to Action on Armed Violent, a British human rights organization, Russia remains the largest producer of ammunition.

Ukraine, on the other hand, is largely dependent on the whim of other countries to replenish its supply, and without missiles, the trucks they are mounted on offer little benefit, especially considering that the original Euro 375d truck has absolutely no armor on the sides. windows. They are not reinforced with any special type of glass, they are basically truck windows from the 60s and 70s, even the newer vehicles offer little protection, just enough to protect against small weapons like pistols and soldiers have said that if the graduate were to run over an anti-tank mine, everyone in the vehicle would die without protection, meaning it is important to pack up and leave immediately after firing, which can take up to 3 minutes for the graduate.

This tactic is called shoot and glide because once you have launched the rockets that the target can calculate where they are coming from and fire back the BM21 are obsolete and have effectively been obsolete for decades, as one Ukrainian soldier said, it is better to ask what has not been broken, the vehicle is prone to breaking down, and soldiers do not always do so. able to get the parts to fix it, its successors like the Russ Russian BM 27 EUR Aon and the Czech rm70 often have improved ranges or some armor to protect the vehicle, but still lack the accuracy and range of modern systems like us High Mars even though it is a flawed weapon Russia may still have an advantage because it has deeper reserves, analysts say that ultimately the reason Ukraine is still deploying the grad is simply because it already has the system in place, It's simple but it works, which is why, despite all the problems, the bm21 has endured.

For another war, these are cluster munitions, a type of weapon that the United States plans to send to Ukraine. The controversial bombs are banned by several countries, but are part of an $800 million aid package that the Biden administration says will strengthen Ukraine's offensive against Russian forces. Tens of millions of these mini-bombs have already been spread across Ukrainian territory. Here's a breakdown of how cluster munitions work and why the United States plans to send them despite humanitarian concerns. American cluster munitions, also known as enhanced conventional dual-purpose munitions, are a type of spread weapon. small bombs over a wide area what the dpicm bring to the battlefield isanti-armor and anti-personnel capability A common type of cluster munition is fired in artillery shells, which is what the United States is expected to give to Ukraine.

They can also be in the form of rockets or launched from an aircraft, the weapon opens in the air to release dozens or hundreds of smaller explosive munitions or submunitions. These submunitions can be loaded with charges that can penetrate armor or munitions that can clearly engage multiple human targets over an area as large as several football fields. a capability that would be useful in any type of offensive operations in Ukraine. Russia has used these munitions since the early days of the invasion. According to Human Rights Watch, the group said one attack hit residential areas in Harke and killed at least three civilians. specifically they say that Russia has used 9 m55 K smirch rockets that are composed of submunitions containers that have a tail fin and a fuse and are located at the front of the rocket.

The submunitions are designed to attack both people and the equipment behind them. After the rocket is launched, the container ejects the submunitions commonly by combining an explosive charge and a spinning mechanism when the fuse of each submunition is activated in the ground or in the air, explodes, but some of them may also not detonate, they are known as Duds. a common problem with cluster munitions Cluster weapons can cause long-term dangers as they can detonate after conflicts end and harm civilians. Human rights groups say the first significant use of cluster weapons was by German and Soviet forces in World War II.

Munitions dropped by German planes. They were commonly called butterfly bombs and an attack on the British port of Grimby killed almost as many people after the attack as during the attack. This bomb can explode as soon as it is lightly touched, it can also explode on its own up to half an hour later. landed The US made extensive use of cluster munitions during the Vietnam War and also dropped them in neighboring Los Angeles and since then, unexploded bombs dropped by US aircraft have killed or maimed thousands of people. More recently, during the war in Iraq, the US dropped more than 1 million mini-bombs during a period of major fighting since 2008, more than 110 countries have signed an International Convention on Cluster Munitions that prohibits all use, transfer, production and storage of cluster bombs.

Russia and Ukraine have not signed the agreement and the United States is among several other NATO countries that are also not signatories, the dpicm ammunition we are delivering to Ukraine will consist only of those with a failure rate of less than 2.35% in compared to Russia, which has been using cluster munitions throughout Ukraine with failure rates of between 30 and 40%. Both sides of the war in Ukraine are already using cluster munitions, the difference is that Russia is using cluster munitions to attack and invade Ukraine Ukraine is using cluster munitions to protect itself against an aggressor according to Human Rights Watch Ukraine inherited a stockpile of munitions Cluster Munitions after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Biden Administration decided to provide us with cluster munitions after written assurances that the weapons would not be used in civilian areas, including allies that signed the Oslo convention, although they cannot formally support something they signed a convention against, have indicated both privately and many of them publicly throughout the day that they understand our decision, the Pentagon says Cluster munitions could be effective when used against armored formations and lines of Russian trenches and US officials have defended the decision to supply the weapons as needed to prevent Ukraine from running out of artillery ammunition at a critical stage of the conflict by providing Ukraine with dpicm artillery ammunition.

We will ensure that the Ukrainian army has enough artillery ammunition for many months.