Storm Shadow (missile)
The Storm Shadow is an air-to-ground standoff missile used by Britain, France under the name Scalp EG, and Italy. The stealthy missile has a range in excess of 150 miles/250km, is powered by a turbojet at mach 0.8 and can be carried by the Tornado GR4, Italian Tornado IDS, Eurofighter Typhoon, Harrier GR7, Mirage 2000 and Rafale aircraft. The warhead features an initial penetrating charge to clear soil or enter a bunker, then a variable delay fuse to control detonation of the main warhead. The missile weights about 1,300kg has a maximum body diameter of 1m and a wingspan of 3m. Intended targets are command, control and communications; airfield facilities; port facilities; AMS/ammunition storage; ships/submarines in ports and bridges.Mission planners program the missile with the target, air defence locations and planned ground path, then the missile uses a low terrain-hugging flight path guided by GPS and terrain matching to the proximity of the target. Once there the missile commences a bunt (climb) manoeuver to an altitude intended to achieve the best probabilty of target acquisition and penetration. During the bunt, the nose cone is jettisoned to allow a high resolution infra-red camera to see the target area. The missile attempts to match the target image with the planned target. If it can't and there is a high risk of collateral damage, it will steer to a pre-designated crash point instead of risking an inaccurate attack with undesired consequences.
Matra BAe Dynamics (UK) was the main UK contractor and Matra BAe Dynamics (France) the main French contractor. The two parts of the same company handled the international co-operation work, reducing project management overhead.
