The UK will purchase Rampage supersonic airborne missiles worth less than $1 million
The United Kingdom was the first to transfer long-range weapons to Ukraine in the form of Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Now the United Kingdom is looking for a replacement.
The UK Ministry of Defense is considering the purchase of Rampage air-to-ground ballistic missiles (bottom of the photo), formerly known as MARS. This is a development of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which was introduced five years ago.
The missiles were first used in combat in the spring of 2019 in Syria. The Rampage successfully broke through the air defense, consisting of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, and destroyed several bunkers.
Rampage weighs 570 kg. The weight of the warhead is 150 kg. The missile is 4.7 meters long, so the carriers will not be fifth-generation F-35B Lightning II fighters, but European Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.
Rampage has a solid fuel engine and can reach speeds of up to 550 m/s (M=1.6). The maximum range of the missile is 250 km. An inertial system paired with GPS is used for guidance. The exact cost of Rampage is not specified, but it is estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The production of one Storm Shadow cruise missile can exceed $3 million.
It should be noted that modifying ballistic missiles for launch from air platforms is nothing new. For example, Russia’s allegedly hypersonic X-47M2 missile is a variant of the land-based Iskander ballistic missile. It can reach a speed of over 6174 km/h (M=5), but during an attack, the speed drops significantly.
