UK to buy Rampage supersonic aero ballistic missiles worth less than $1m to replace Storm Shadow, which has been transferred to Ukraine

The UK was the first to give Ukraine long-range weapons in the form of Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Now the UK is looking for a replacement.

Here's What We Know

The UK Ministry of Defence is considering the purchase of Rampage air-to-ground ballistic missiles (bottom of picture), formerly known as MARS. It is a development by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which was introduced five years ago.

The missiles were first used in combat operations in spring 2019 in Syria. The Rampage successfully breached an air defence consisting of S-300 surface-to-air missiles and destroyed several bunkers.

The Rampage weighs 570 kg. The weight of the warhead is 150 kg. The missile is 4.7 meters long, so it will not be carried by the fifth generation F-35B Lightning II fighters, but by European Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.

The Rampage is solid propelled and can reach speeds of up to 550 m/s (M=1.6). The missile has a maximum launch range of 250 km. It uses an inertial guidance system paired with GPS. The exact cost of the Rampage is not specified, but is estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars. Production of one Storm Shadow cruise missile can exceed $3 million.

Modifying ballistic missiles to be launched from airborne platforms is nothing new. For example, Russia's allegedly hypersonic Kh-47M2 missile is a variant of the ground-based Iskander ballistic missile. It can reach speeds in excess of 6174km/h (M=5), but its time of attack falls many times over.

Source: The National News