VIGIL CONSILIUM
Context. Not headlines.

Missile / precision strike · Air-launched cruise missile

Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG

The Anglo-French cruise missile that gave Ukraine its first deep, hardened-target strike capability — used against Black Sea Fleet headquarters, the Kerch approaches and, from late 2024, targets inside Russia — and whose supply is the tightest of any Ukrainian weapon.

Storm Shadow United Kingdom, France British and French service from 2003; supplied to Ukraine from May 2023

Status as of
2026-03
Last reviewed
2026-09-28

AssessmentHigh confidence

Recognition context, not a stat sheet. The catalogue covers major publicly documented systems relevant to the conflicts Vigil covers — not an exhaustive order of battle. No quantities, availability or current allocations are recorded.

The record What this system is, where it comes from, who operates it and which of Vigil’s modules it is relevant to — with the evidence each of those rests on.

Fielded Evidence: Confirmed
Silhouette · not to scale

Record

FamilyStorm Shadow
VariantsStorm Shadow (United Kingdom); SCALP-EG (France)
OriginUnited Kingdom, France
ManufacturerMBDA
EraBritish and French service from 2003; supplied to Ukraine from May 2023
Appears inUkraine–Russia

Conflict relevance

This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.

Operators

Ukraine: Supplied by the United Kingdom from May 2023 and by France from July 2023, integrated on Ukraine's Su-24 fleet; a further French batch was announced in January 2024. Stocks are not published and are not stated here.

DonorsUnited Kingdom, France, Italy (reported)

Battlefield role

Standoff precision strike against hardened and high-value fixed targets: headquarters, ship repair yards, ammunition depots and bridges beyond the reach of rocket artillery, launched from Su-24 aircraft flying inside Ukrainian airspace.

Strengths

A penetrating warhead and terrain-following, low-level flight that make it effective against bunkers and dry docks; a proven record from the September 2023 strike on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol onward, with interceptions rarely documented.

Limitations

Small stocks that depend entirely on British and French decisions and on a production line whose output is not published; a launch platform, the Su-24, of which Ukraine has few and which Russia hunts; and targeting inside Russia that was politically restricted until November 2024. Each launch is a scarce round spent, and the number remaining is not public.

Campaign relevance

Derived: a participant organisation in these campaigns carries a typed equipment association with this system. That is not the same as documented use of the system in the campaign itself.

Visual identification

A boxy, angular missile with a square cross-section, folding wings that deploy after launch and a ventral engine intake; carried under the wing of a Su-24. Rarely seen except in launch footage and debris.

Documented conflict use

In documented Ukrainian use since May 2023: the Sevastopol headquarters strike of September 2023, strikes on Kerch ferry and repair facilities and on occupied-territory command posts through 2024; the first strikes inside Russia in November 2024 after the British decision; and, according to reporting in 2026, strikes on a Donetsk-area launch site in March 2026 and on the Kremniy El plant in Bryansk on 10 March 2026. Supply remains the constraint: reporting on remaining stocks is estimate, not source, and is not reproduced here.

Branch & service operators

Assessed as of — 2026-03 Last reviewed — 2026-09-28