UK Deploys New Tranche of Storm Shadow Missiles to Ukraine Ahead of Winter Campaign.

The United Kingdom has delivered an additional, undisclosed tranche of MBDA Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles to Ukraine, Bloomberg reports, to maintain long-range strike capability through the winter.

According to information published by Bloomberg, on November 3, 2025, the United Kingdom delivered an additional, undisclosed tranche of MBDA Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles to Ukraine to sustain long-range strikes through winter, a move aligned with London’s pledge to keep pressure on Russian logistics and command infrastructure. The report notes recent massed salvos that penetrated Russian air defenses and confirms the UK’s practice of withholding quantities for operational security.
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Storm Shadow/SCALP is a low-observable air-launched cruise missile with 250+ km range, imaging-IR guidance, and a 450 kg BROACH penetrator for hardened targets (Picture source: UK MoD).

Storm Shadow, known in France as SCALP EG, is a low-observable, terrain-following cruise missile designed for pre-planned attacks on hardened, high-value targets. It couples INS and GPS with terrain-reference navigation and an imaging-infrared seeker for terminal aim-point matching. The 450-kilogram BROACH tandem penetrator bores through concrete and detonates inside the structure, while the range exceeds 250 kilometers, allowing low-altitude ingress from standoff distances. MBDA and Safran confirm the missile’s BROACH architecture and TR60-30 turbojet lineage that underpin its lethality and reach.

Politically, the handover tracks the UK’s consistent strategic messaging since it first confirmed transfers in May 2023, framing Storm Shadow as a proportionate response that upholds Ukraine’s right to self-defense. The current Defence Secretary John Healey has kept support high-tempo in 2025, while the foundational May 11, 2023, statement remains the baseline for London’s position.

On quantities, London has never published counts for any tranche, though reporting in late 2024 described “dozens” of additional missiles supplied. Paris has been more specific at times: President Emmanuel Macron pledged about 40 SCALP in January 2024 and said “several hundred bombs” would accompany the package; France had previously delivered roughly 50 SCALP by mid-2023. Kyiv’s Western deep-strike inventory thus rests on repeat British resupply and periodic French top-ups.

Ukraine employs Storm Shadow from Su-24M bombers using pre-planned, terrain-hugging routes and terminal image matching to defeat defenses. The system has been used to tell effect against Crimea-based infrastructure, including the September 2023 strike campaign that wrecked Sevastopol’s dry dock capacity and damaged the submarine Rostov-on-Don and the landing ship Minsk, followed days later by a direct hit on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters that forced Russia to disperse assets and relocate command functions. Imagery and open-source reporting confirm Su-24 carriage and repeated employment.

Storm Shadow complements ATACMS by offering a stealthy, low-altitude cruise profile optimized for fixed, hardened nodes rather than area targets. Ukrainian planners appear to reserve the missile for objectives whose loss creates operational friction beyond immediate blast effects: ship repair capacity, aviation command facilities, ammunition depots under earth cover, bridges, and integrated air-defense components. The BROACH mechanism and terminal seeker are the enablers that make these episodic strikes strategically resonant.

MBDA has restarted and upgraded Storm Shadow and SCALP lines while moving the Franco-British-Italian successor program into its development phase under the new STRATUS banner, the evolution of the FC/ASW project. In parallel, the UK government highlights more than 1,300 high-skill jobs linked to line upgrades and the deep-strike successor effort, anchoring a cross-Channel supply chain that includes Safran’s TR60 family of engines and seeker-electronics producers. The UK National Audit Office has flagged the bill to replenish donated munitions, underscoring the budget tradeoffs inherent in sustaining Ukraine while restoring domestic stockpiles.

Comparably, Germany’s Taurus KEPD 350 offers a slightly heavier penetrator (MEPHISTO around 480 kg) and an advertised range beyond 500 kilometers, trading size for deeper reach; Berlin has repeatedly declined a transfer to Ukraine despite debate through 2025 and instead funded upgrades to its own inventory. The U.S. AGM-158 family fields a 1,000-lb-class penetrator and stretches from 200+ miles (baseline) to 500+ miles (ER) and roughly 1,000 miles (XR). Washington has considered JASSM for Ukraine at various points but, as of today, has not publicly announced a transfer. In Ukrainian service now, Storm Shadow and SCALP remain the only European deep-strike cruise missiles integrated on available platforms and used at scale.

For Britain and France, each new delivery is more than a battlefield input. It signals durable demand for deep-strike munitions, validates MBDA’s production restart, and pushes suppliers of explosives, actuators, seekers, and turbojets to expand capacity. For Kyiv, it preserves a credible ability to impose costs deep in the Russian rear, shaping the campaign by forcing Russia to spend on dispersal, concealment, and reconstruction rather than offense. The latest Bloomberg report, paired with London’s broader 2025 posture, suggests Storm Shadow will continue to sit at the center of Ukraine’s deep strike capability alongside ATACMS and a fast-growing drone complex.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.