The Times reported that the UK Defense Minister Grant Shapps visited the production site of MBDA UK, where assembly and modernization of Storm Shadow cruise missiles take place. Defense Express wrote about it in a separate article.
According to the UK Defense Minister, “the Storm Shadow has been an extraordinary weapon. It’s the UK, France and Italy positioning those weapons for use, particularly in Crimea. These weapons are making a very significant difference.”
Read more: Britain Accelerates Storm Shadow Cruise Missiles Production to Aid Ukraine
From these words, some sources have claimed that Italy also supplies long-range Storm Shadow missiles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, given the lack of official data regarding such deliveries from Italy, there is little basis for such definitive claims.
Indeed, there is publicly available data indicating that under the 1999 contract, Italy ordered the delivery of 200 Storm Shadow cruise missiles to equip its Tornado IDS strike aircraft. As indicated by The Military Balance 2023, at the beginning of last year, there were 34 aircraft of this type in service with the Italian Air Force. These data indeed do not rule out the theoretical possibility that, under certain conditions, Italy could allocate a certain amount of Storm Shadow missiles for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
However, in this case, the primary source was not theoretical assumptions, but the words of the British Defense Secretary Shapps quoted above. And even if we consider his words in an exclusively optimistic context, there is hardly any basis for talking about the transfer of missiles at the present time. It's also possible that this was simply said in the context of participation in manufacturing cooperation, which allows for the production of the same Storm Shadow missiles with the prospect of further transfer to Ukraine.
Moreover, in July 2023, Italy officially joined the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) program led by MBDA, which already included Britain and France at that time. So, the fact of establishing manufacturing cooperation on long-range missiles with Italy exists.
However, if information does emerge from other sources confirming that Italy has also become a supplier of Storm Shadow missiles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, then it will undoubtedly be good news for bolstering Ukraine's long-range strike capabilities against the enemy.
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