The UK and French Ministries of Defence have jointly announced they have contracted MBDA for the mid-life refurbishment of Storm Shadow / SCALP EG cruise missiles. This will prolong the operational superiority of the weapon against the anticipated evolving threat well into next decade.
This constitutes another major step in the Franco-British route map, continuing the cooperation in the deep strike domain which was initiated with the launch of the Storm Shadow / SCALP programme in 1996.
The Storm Shadow / SCALP mid-life refurbishment programme will include a development phase and will be validated by a series of flight trials during 2019. The first refurbished missiles are expected to be returned to the French and UK armed by early 2020.