Ukraine war: Britain donates deadly Stormer armoured missile vehicles to Ukraine to blast Russian jets and helicopters

By Tom Cotterill
Published 19th Apr 2022, 13:16 BST
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ARMOURED fighting vehicles equipped with super-sonic missiles capable blasting aircraft out the sky are being sent to Ukraine to help the country repel Russian invaders.

A number of Stormer High Velocity Missile (HVM) launchers from Royal Artillery units based at Baker Barracks on Thorney Island are being sent to Ukraine, The Sun newspaper has reported.

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State-of-the-art Starstreak air defence system part of new package to make sure ...

The versatile weapons systems are able to speed into battle at 50mph and can fire off 17 Starstreak missiles to blitz low-flying jets and helicopters.

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Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) Stormer, firing High Velocity Missile (HVM) on Ex Javelin part of the 1 Yorkshire Regiment (1 York) Battlegroup during Ex Prairie Lightning. on Ex Prairie Storm 3 in British Army Training Area Suffield (BATUS), Alberta Canada.Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) Stormer, firing High Velocity Missile (HVM) on Ex Javelin part of the 1 Yorkshire Regiment (1 York) Battlegroup during Ex Prairie Lightning. on Ex Prairie Storm 3 in British Army Training Area Suffield (BATUS), Alberta Canada.
Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) Stormer, firing High Velocity Missile (HVM) on Ex Javelin part of the 1 Yorkshire Regiment (1 York) Battlegroup during Ex Prairie Lightning. on Ex Prairie Storm 3 in British Army Training Area Suffield (BATUS), Alberta Canada.

The Stormers, which are used by gunners from 12 Regiment, Royal Artillery, are the latest wave of support being sent to the Ukraine as fierce fighting erupted in the east of the country last night.

Moscow claimed to have struck more than 1,000 targets in Ukraine overnight as it launched a renewed offensive to take the Donbas region.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with the West for greater firepower as Putin's war machine begins a new phase of its bloody invasion.

Britain’s deployment of the 13-tonne Stormer vehicles comes after they were shown off to Ukrainian military officials during a display on Salisbury Plain two weeks ago.

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The tech, which can be flown to the war on C-17 transport planes, are the latest pieces of kit to be sent from Thorney Island, following from the deployment of Startstreak missiles to Ukraine last month.

Dr Alan Mendoza, of security think tank the Henry Jackson Society, told The Sun: ‘These vehicles are the best kit yet sent to Ukraine and will leave Russian pilots quaking.

‘The UK is putting Putin on notice that Russian aggression, war crimes, and rocket strikes will no longer be tolerated. The UK should wear Putin’s inevitable angry and overblown reaction to this as a badge of pride.’

But Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, told the paper that UK's major boost to Ukraine's forces risks further angering Moscow, with the threat of retalitation coming in the form of ‘cyber attacks, sabotage, assassination or other covert attacks for which his intelligence services have proven capability, including in the UK’.

Last month, hundreds of troops from Thorney Island were deployed to Poland to shore up Nato’s eastern flank.

Related topics:UkraineVolodymyr ZelenskyBritain

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