France to launch SCALP Mk2 cruise missile upgrade to sustain deep-strike capability.

France is expected to initiate development work on a Mk2 upgrade of the SCALP air-launched cruise missile in 2026, according to FdeStV and Etienne Marcuz.

According to FdeStV and Etienne Marcuz on February 2, 2026, France is expected to initiate development work on a Mk2 upgrade of the SCALP air-launched cruise missile in 2026, likely to improve guidance, target acquisition, and mission-related functions. The program would be conducted under French procurement authority supervision with cooperative management involving OCCAR. The upgrade is intended to maintain compatibility with existing SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow missile inventories operated by France and the United Kingdom.
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In July 2025, France and the United Kingdom restarted production of the SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow cruise missiles after a pause that had lasted since about 2010, roughly fifteen years after the last major French orders. (Picture source: UK MoD)

More precisely, France would begin the development work of a Mk2 version of the SCALP air-launched cruise missile in 2026, initiating a new upgrade phase for the Franco-British missile. The Mk2 configuration will likely improve guidance, target acquisition, and mission-related functions while preserving compatibility with existing SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow inventories operated by France and the United Kingdom. The program is expected to be managed partly within a cooperative framework involving OCCAr under French procurement authority (or DGA) supervision. Statements associated with the posts reflected differing expectations, including hopes for large-scale future production, assessments that the step supports continuity ahead of the FC/ASW replacement, and views that Mk2 constitutes an interim measure given the long timelines associated with FC/ASW. 

In July 2025, France and the United Kingdom restarted production of the SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow cruise missiles after a pause that had lasted since about 2010, roughly fifteen years after the last major French orders. The decision followed sustained deliveries of missiles to Ukraine from 2023, which reduced national inventories and created a requirement to replenish stocks in both countries. Production was reactivated within a binational industrial structure led by MBDA, with defined workshare between the two nations. The UK facility at Stevenage resumed manufacturing of guidance and control components, while French facilities at Bourges and Selles-Saint-Denis resumed work on propulsion, assembly, and final integration.

The restart was formally linked to a new Franco-British missile cooperation framework referred to as the Entente Industrielle, which aims to maintain continuous missile manufacturing capacity rather than episodic production. The arrangement also provides the industrial basis to sustain SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow output until their planned replacement becomes available. From 2023 onward, MBDA increased missile output across its portfolio, reporting a 33 percent rise in production in 2024 and setting a target to double overall output by the end of 2025 compared with 2023 levels. These increases are supported by a €2.4 billion investment program covering the 2023–2028 period, focused on automation, extended shifts, and reactivation of suppliers that had been inactive since the early 2010s.

Production of SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow relies on distributed manufacturing across several national sites and on transnational supply chains for electronics, thermal batteries, and warheads, all of which require requalification after the long production hiatus. Exact monthly output rates for the cruise missile remain undisclosed, but production is described as occurring at low double-digit levels per month with plans for gradual expansion. The restart of the SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow lines is also aligned with preparation for the successor system under the FC/ASW program, scheduled to enter production between 2028 and 2034. As of early 2025, MBDA’s order backlog was estimated at about €37 billion, corresponding to roughly seven years of production at then-current output rates, indicating sustained demand across multiple missile families. 

The SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow missile originated from a requirement in the mid-1990s for a long-range conventional air-launched strike weapon capable of engaging hardened targets from stand-off distance. In the United Kingdom, the program emerged from the CASOM competition, in which the Matra and British Aerospace proposal was selected on June 25, 1996, over multiple international competitors. A joint development and production contract was signed on February 11, 1997, after the missile activities of the two companies were consolidated into Matra BAe Dynamics, which later became part of MBDA. France placed an initial order for 500 SCALP missiles in January 1998, while the United Kingdom procured a fleet generally cited between 700 and 1,000 Storm Shadow missiles for the Royal Air Force. 

The first fully guided firing of the missile took place in late December 2000 in France, with a Mirage 2000N as the launch aircraft, followed by the first UK firing on May 25, 2001, from a Tornado. Storm Shadow entered operational service with the Royal Air Force in 2002, while SCALP-EG entered French service from 2005, initially on Mirage 2000D and later on Rafale aircraft in both Air Force and naval aviation units. Operational use includes employment in Iraq from 2003, Libya in 2011, with at least 15 SCALP-EG launches against air bases and command facilities, and repeated strikes in Iraq and Syria between 2015 and 2016. By February 2017, about 200 missiles had been fired by France and the United Kingdom combined, followed by additional use during the April 2018 strikes in Syria.

From May 2023 onward, Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG missiles supplied by the United Kingdom and France have been used by Ukraine against headquarters, bridges, ports, and naval vessels, including targets in Sevastopol and Feodosiia, with further deliveries announced through January 2024. Within this operational and industrial context, the Mk2 program is intended to sustain and incrementally update an existing deep-strike capability until a successor under FC/ASW enters service. The SCALP-EG, designated Storm Shadow in British service, is a long-range air-launched cruise missile developed from the mid-1990s by Matra and British Aerospace and subsequently produced by MBDA. Deployment is listed from 2002, with service entry following national integration timelines in France and the United Kingdom.

The missile is intended for deep-strike missions against targets located well beyond defended front lines, reducing the exposure of launch aircraft. Publicly cited range figures include values up to 400 km, with higher figures such as 560 km attributed to Royal Air Force statements, while export variants are subject to reduced range limits. In French service, the SCALP-EG operates alongside ASMPA and MdCN missiles as part of a broader long-range strike set. The missile has a launch mass of 1,300 kg, a length of 5.10 m, and a wingspan listed at 2.85 m, and it is powered by a Microturbo TRI 60-30 turbojet rated at about 5.7 kN of thrust. Maximum speed is cited at 1,163 km/h, corresponding to Mach 0.95, and cruise altitude is stated at 30 m, consistent with sustained terrain-following flight. Guidance combines inertial navigation, GPS, terrain-referenced navigation, radar-related inputs, and infrared imaging in the terminal phase.

Accuracy is described as metric. Unit cost figures cited include £2,000,000 per Storm Shadow unit in FY2023, corresponding to about $2,500,000. The missile carries a 450 kg BROACH tandem warhead, consisting of an initial penetrating charge followed by a delayed main charge to defeat hardened or buried structures. Mission data are programmed prior to launch, and the missile follows a predefined route without in-flight retargeting, external control, or self-destruct capability. During flight, it maintains low altitude using terrain-referenced navigation, then climbs near the target to optimize recognition conditions. The nose cone is ejected to enable a high-resolution infrared seeker to confirm the aimpoint. If the intended target cannot be identified and collateral risk is assessed as excessive, the missile is designed to terminate in an uninhabited area. Integration of SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow has been carried out on multiple combat aircraft types, including Mirage 2000, Rafale, Panavia Tornado, Eurofighter Typhoon, Saab Gripen, and modified Ukrainian Su-24 fighters.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.