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World Defense & Security News - France
 
 
French M 2000D fighter jets hit Daesh with SCALP missiles for the first time
 
On 17th March, 2016, five Mirage 2000D (M 2000D) fighter jets, along with Rafale fighters, fired SCALP missiles during a raid against Daesh, the French Ministry of Defense announced on its website on Friday. The M 2000D and Rafale jets together launched eight SCALP-EG missiles on a Daesh's command post in Hit, center of Iraq.
     
French M 2000D fighter jets hit Daesh with-SCALP missiles for the first  time 640 001Five French Air Force's M 2000D fighter jets took off from a forward air base in Jordan to target Daesh with SCALP-EG missiles for the first time
(Credit: French Air Force/French Ministry of Defense)
     
This was the first time French Air Force's M 2000D used SCALP missile since the beginning of the Operation Chammal and the first time the missiles were deployed from the french forward air base in Jordan, the French MoD said.

In 2015, more than 1,200 missions were conducted from the french air base in Jordan. Since January 1st, 2016, a hundred weapons have een fired during more than 160 raids conducted from Jordan.

The French M 2000D fired the SCALP misiles for the last time in 2011, during Operation Harmattan in Lybia.

The SCALP, also dubbed Storm Shadow in the Royal Air Force, is a British, French and Italian air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by MBDA.

The missile has a range of approximately 560 km (300 nautical miles), is powered by a Turbomeca Microturbo TRI 60-30 turbojet at 1,000 km/h (Mach 8). It is equipped with a 450 kg BROACH (standing for Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge) warhead.