UK and France discuss producing SCALP missiles in Ukraine
UK Prime Minister Burnham and French President Macron (photo: Getty Images)
The United Kingdom and France discussed further cooperation on defense production in Ukraine. Among the issues raised during the meeting was the establishment of Ukrainian assembly lines for long-range SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles, according to the UK government.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed further steps on the production of SCALP missiles in Ukraine during a meeting in London. The leaders also agreed that it was important for their countries to continue working together to protect their shared interests.
SCALP is the French version of the British Storm Shadow missile. Both systems use shared French and British technologies.
The talks therefore concerned not only the supply of ready-made missiles to Ukraine but also the further expansion of cooperation on their production directly on Ukrainian territory.
UK has already agreed to transfer the technology
The issue of missile production in Ukraine became one of the topics of discussion following Burnham's statement during his visit to Kyiv on August 24.
At the time, the British prime minister said that London had approved a decision to share Storm Shadow production technology with Ukraine. During their meeting in London, Burnham and Macron also reviewed the results of the Coalition of the Willing meeting held in Kyiv last week.
Background
Launching Storm Shadow and SCALP production in Ukraine would require establishing the necessary manufacturing and assembly processes within the country's defense industry.
Aviation expert and defense industry development director Anatolii Khrapchynskyi has previously discussed the prospect of producing Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles in Ukraine and what such production would involve.
