According to military-political analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko, Germany's stubborn refusal to agree to the transfer of Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine is not a serious problem, because the Ukrainian military should soon receive worthy alternatives.
Why Ukraine should not focus on Taurus supplies from Germany
Kovalenko explains that the German long-range Taurus missiles are designed to hit well-protected bunker-type targets at long distances.
At the same time, the German military has a Taurus with a range of up to 500 km, but missiles with a range of no more than 300 km are exported.
The analyst emphasized that the missile is a joint development of Germany and Sweden, but in terms of functionality it is not much different from the British Storm Shadow and the French SCALP-EG.
Taurus is the same subsonic air-to-surface cruise missile with various warhead modifications.
In other words, Taurus is not a unique Wunderwaffe for which you should bow to Olaf Scholz, having access to Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG, Kovalenko emphasizes.
However, he notes that Ukraine's persistent desire to receive these missiles from Germany is related to their available number.
There are not thousands of Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG in Great Britain and France in warehouses, and they can be transferred to Ukraine in limited quantities. Taurus missiles are also not hyper-numerous, but in symbiosis with Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG, they would make it possible to strike Russian targets in a more systematic and massed mode, Kovalenko emphasized.
At the same time, the analyst noted that one of the key disadvantages of Taurus is the limitation of carriers and launch platforms of this missile.
Kovalenko emphasized that the Taurus missiles were designed with a limited number of carriers from the very beginning.
At the same time, the Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG missiles, after only minor modifications, were integrated into the Ukrainian Su-24 front-line bombers and many other weapons provided by our partners — AGM-88 HAARM, AASM-250 Hammer, JDAM and others. and were also installed on MiG-29, Su-27.
The analyst emphasized that a similar integration of Taurus is actually impossible.
In order for the Su-24 to be able to use the Taurus, it should be subjected to such a deep modernization that it will simply be almost a new modification of the old Soviet front-line bomber. And it is not yet a fact that such modernization will be effective and high-quality, Kovalenko explains.
Even F-16s cannot be Taurus carriers without prior modernization, although not as deep and unpredictable as for the Su-24.
Taurus carriers can be Swedish Saab JAS 39 Gripen, Panavia Tornado, McDonnell Douglas F/A-18, as well as Eurofighter Typhoon.
What alternative missiles will Ukraine be able to use after receiving the F-16
Kovalenko emphasized that the list of weapons available for use by the F-16 fighter includes the AGM-158 JASSM subsonic air-to-surface cruise missile, as well as the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon.
AGM-158 JASSM is still the same air-based subsonic cruise missile, which, depending on the modification, can be used both on manpower/techniques and on fortified objects, that is, it has similar functionality to Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG , as well as Taurus.
The AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon is a planing bomb based on the armor-piercing WDU-42/B. The basic range of these bombs is 130 km. But the modification with a jet engine exceeds the range of 500 km. More than 25,000 such weapons were delivered to the US Army.
The F-16, upon request, can come to Ukraine with weapons that fully compensate for the Taurus both quantitatively and qualitatively, so you should not focus on these missiles, the expert concludes.
