Last week the Armée de L'Air successfully used the SCALP-EG cruise missile for the first time, an acronym for 'Système de croisière conventionnel autonomous à longue portée' and 'Emploi général'. The French Defense Ministry has released the news that December 15, a dozen Dassault jets Flurry and Dassault The Mirage, N and D took off from allied air bases of Muwaffaq Salti in Jordan and Al Dhafra in the United Arab Emirates to carry out a series of raids on Al Qaim, on the border between Syria and Iraq. Objectives of the sortie various fortified buildings used by the ISIS as headquarters, training centers and deposits of armaments and materials of various kinds.
It is the first time in the operation Chammal French jets employ this kind of missile. The SCALP is a cruise missile developed by the French MATRA (Mécanique Aviation TRActionla), a strategic air-surface (or sea-surface) weapon of the 'fire and forget' genus provided with 'stealth' properties that allow it to deceive the reception of Radar Cross-Section (RCS). It is mainly used to destroy strategic objectives such as infrastructures, bases, ports and airports located at great distances. It is the derivation of the APACHE missile missile.
Along 5 mt, equipped with foldable high fins and a Turbomeca turbojet, it has a range of 560 km (250 km currently used), it can reach 1000 km / h and its destructive power is generated from a header from 450kg BROACH. Once the target is reached, a first hollow charge allows him to penetrate the fortification, then the second charge, with a delayed spool, destroys the target. SCALP can also be used by Panavia Tornado and in the future by the F-35, the English designation for this missile is MBDA 'Storm Shadow', and the RAF has made extensive use of it during the Operation Ellamy, the 2011 intervention in Libya.
From December 9 to December 20, the French crews conducted a total of 54 anti-ISIS sorties by hitting 45 targets between Syria and Iraq. Added to these are the 12 close air support missions in support of Iraqi ground forces, these have counted 22 successfully destroyed targets, but not listed in detail. The appliances under force a The Aéronavale, the French air force embarked on the Charles de Gaulle, returned to business on Sunday, after the French aircraft carrier passed the Strait of Hormuz, between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, to reach its new operational area.
(photo: MBDA)
