France’s Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that production of the Anglo-French Storm Shadow / SCALP EG cruise missiles was about to resume on X on Wednesday, July 9. The post came after he had visited the MBDA factory in the UK’s Stevenage with the British Defence Secretary John Healey.
Lecornu said in his post “Supplied to Ukraine, the Franco-British SCALP/Storm Shadow missile has demonstrated its effectiveness in modern high-intensity combat, in decisive situations.”
He then added: “As a joint venture between France, the UK, Italy and Germany, MBDA is a symbol of Europe’s leading defense industry.”
MBDA who designed and built the missile is a joint venture between France, the UK, Italy, and Germany. resumed, marking the first new order in 15 years for the Franco-British precision weapon.
The missile which entered service in 2003 was a development of the older French Apache anti-runway missile, developed by France’s Matra and British Aerospace before the MBDA JV began serial production.
The low-observable Storm Shadow / SCALP missile which in the “export version” supplied to Ukraine has a range in excess of 250 kilometers (155 miles) and uses its combined satellite guided and inertial precision-guided system to deliver its BROACH (Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge) multi-stage “bunker busting” warhead against protected facilities.
Ukrainian forces have used the missiles to strike heavily defended Russian military installations and naval command centers, including targets in Crimea – such as the September 2023 strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea.
Lecornu says that restarting production will ensure that both France and its allies are able to maintain stockpiles of the cruise missile and suggested that some of the newly produced missiles would be supplied to Ukraine. It was not specified if these would be the export version or the type used by the UK and France which has a range of up to 560 kilometers (350 miles).
In its 2025 defense equipment finance bill, published in December 2024, France included €1.9 billion ($2.2 billion) for 155mm artillery ammunition, heavy torpedoes, air defense, air-to-surface and air-launched missiles including Storm Shadow / SCALP EG.
The decision to restart production comes as Ukraine’s US and European allies face growing concerns that weapons supplied in support of Ukraine have denuded their own stockpiles with the Anglo-French cruise missile having proved its essential capability.