Thread by @aidefranceukr

“In military terms, the SCALP is a real game changer.”

“Operation Chrysalis : how France is organising the supply of SCALP missiles to Ukraine.”

@RFI reveals the 🇲🇫 method for supplying the 🇺🇦 armed forces with SCALP cruise missiles without touching its own strategic stocks.
🧵

France has identified several batches of SCALP-EG cruise missiles stored in “cocoons” in its arsenals. A cocoon is a waterproof package used to protect and preserve equipment with a view to a possible return to service.

Two types of stockpile emerged: old missiles that had reached the end of their life but were intact.

On the other hand, cocoons containing missiles that were no longer used because they had been cannibalised: that is, a certain number of parts or components had been removed in order to keep others in working order. SCALPs used in @Armee_de_lair squadrons.

They must, therefore, return to the factories where they were assembled in France. More precisely, in Bourges, on one of the @MBDAGroup industrial sites where these machines were produced in the 2000s.

The plan is to upgrade the equipment over a three-month period, during which each missile will undergo a battery of tests. A simplified procedure, because 🇲🇫 is sure that SCALPs sent to 🇺🇦 will not be returned to storage but will be launched against 🇷🇺 targets within weeks.

In addition to “Chrysalide”, which must be completed by the end of the year, the 🇲🇫 authorities are also looking elsewhere. They are looking for all types of ammunition: SCALPs, but also 155 mm shells for artillery and surface-to-air weapons to defend the Ukrainian skies.

There are also “export” versions of SCALP-EG missiles, and again, the main idea is to ensure that those that reach the end of their life, or that could be sold, are used by Ukraine. This idea has been circulating since the beginning of the year.

Some customers in the 🇲🇫 defence industry have ordered large quantities of the SCALPs in a slightly different version to that fitted to 🇲🇫 squadrons. ⤵️

However, a source close to the manufacturer told @RFI that these versions can not be programmed using 🇲🇫 computers. These missiles will, therefore, have to be adapted to be compatible with the mission preparation system provided by the @Elysee.

Discretion is required on this sensitive issue, but it’s likely that these “export” missiles, if sold, will undergo some modifications on the assembly lines to make them usable by 🇺🇦. The scope of these SCALPs “exports” is somewhat smaller, and some software is different.

The first units were delivered to Ukraine in the second half of 2023. In August, @ZelenskyyUa inaugurated a SCALP-EG cruise missile by writing “Glory to Ukraine” on the sides of the weapon.

The first shot targeted a 🇷🇺 command centre in the Luhansk oblast, which until then had been out of range of the Ukrainian arsenal. But it was the SCALPs, with “a range of 300 kilometres”, that were the architects of the victory in the Black Sea.

On 12 September, a large-scale missile attack destroyed two ships dry-docked in the port of Sevastopol, a large landing ship and a Kilo-class submarine, the Rostov on Don.

On 22 September 2023, a salvo of missiles penetrated 🇷🇺 surface-to-air defences and struck the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, again at the Sevastopol naval base, injuring and killing senior officers.

On 4 November 2023, the Kerch shipyard suffered a massive attack by around ten missiles, damaging a 🇷🇺 warship armed with Kalibr cruise missiles.

SCALP-EG cruise missiles helped push the 🇷🇺 fleet back to the easternmost part of the Black Sea. A victory that allowed 🇺🇦 to protect the port of Odessa and secure a naval corridor along its coasts, allowing the export of grain.

rfi.fr/fr/europe/2024…

TL;DR: 🇷🇺 troops and fleets are being harassed by obsolete French cruise missiles that have been recycled. War ecology.

@MBDAGroup *missiles not machines

Now that I think about it : our friend @SebLecornu sent 40 SCALPs to @MBDAFrance to be recycled.