What is the Stormer missile system the UK is planning to send to Ukraine?

High-velocity weapons can take out low-flying planes and hit targets on the ground

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  Workers unloading a Royal Canadian Air Force military transport plane to assist Ukraine at Lviv airport. AFP

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  A new member of the Territorial Defence Forces trains to operate an AT4 anti-tank launcher in Kyiv. Reuters

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  A plane loaded with military equipment for Ukrainian forces takes off from Albacete, Spain. EPA

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  A Ukrainian soldier holds a Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon used to destroy a Russian armoured personal carrier in Irpin, north of Kyiv. AFP

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  A Ukrainian serviceman with a Javelin missile system on the front line near Kyiv. Reuters

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  A soldier holds a Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank rocket launcher at the Munster military training area in Germany in 2016. Getty Images

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  A US Marine Corps staff sergeant aims a M72 Light Anti-tank Weapon. Photo: US National Archives

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  The Switchblade is a camera-equipped, remote-controlled flying bomb with a reputation for pinpoint delivery. AP Photo

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  A coalition forces member fires a Carl Gustav recoilless rifle system during weapons practice on a range in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2013. US Army Photo

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  A Starstreak surface-to-air missile system. PA

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Britain is expected to announce it is sending Stormer armoured missile launchers to Ukraine, whose President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia's large-scale offensive in the eastern Donbas region had begun.

The UK has increased the number and type of weapons it is sending to Ukraine as the war has developed and the latest batch would be the largest heavy weaponry despatched to the conflict.

Sending the Stormer system gives Ukraine weaponry with the capacity to take out aerial targets, including low-flying helicopters and planes, but which can also hit targets on the ground.

The Stormer, a high velocity missile (HVM) launcher, is manufactured by BAE Systems and needs three people to operate — a commander, operator and driver.

It fires Starstreak missiles, which can be fired from the vehicle’s turret or from a shoulder mount.

The missiles flying at more than three times the speed are suited to hitting low-flying jets.

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  A sign that reads 'Children' is fixed on to a car windscreen riddled with bulletholes in Irpin, Ukraine. AFP

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  A woman weeps next to her husband's coffin at a cemetery in Irpin. AFP

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  Residents walk amid debris of a charred Russian tank next to destroyed houses in the village of Zalissya. AFP

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  Volunteers distribute food to residents in Zalissya. AFP

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  A man walks past a damaged apartment building in the southern port city of Mariupol. Reuters

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  Tamara, 71, cries in front of a destroyed apartment building in Mariupol. Reuters

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  Local residents push a cart with a child past destroyed buildings in Mariupol. Reuters

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  A record player sits among debris inside an apartment in Mariupol. Reuters

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  Residents carry belongings past a destroyed building in Mariupol. Reuters

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  Security guards help an injured man following a Russian bombing of a factory in Kramatorsk. AP

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  Soldiers collect explosives after recent battles in the village of Moshchun, close to Kyiv. AP

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  The Komodor logistics park lies in ruins after being bombed and burnt during the Russian invasion near Makarov. Getty Images

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  A room in a kindergarten stands windowless in Makarov. Getty Images

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  A vehicle draped with a Ukrainian flag passes over a war-damaged bridge in Makarov. Getty Images

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  A man sits in a basement that was used as a bomb shelter in the village of Kukhari. EPA

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  Local residents clean the area around a destroyed farm in Kukhari. EPA

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  Nadia looks at her husband's coffin at a cemetery in Bucha. He was killed during the war. AFP

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  Mangled buildings in Irpin point to the ravages of the ongoing war. Getty Images

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  A burnt apartment tower in Irpin. Getty Images

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  Family members grieve during the funeral of Ruslan Nechyporenko, 47, in Bucha. Getty Images

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  An abandoned Russian military position in Borodyanka town near Kyiv. EPA

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  Heavily pregnant Dr Marta Kopan, who fled Kyiv with her husband Dr Maxim Motsya and their three-year-old son Makar, narrates their ordeal at a relative's place in Lviv. AP

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  A Ukrainian officer searches for unexploded explosives as he passes by an Antonov An-225, the world's biggest cargo aircraft, destroyed during the war on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

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  A woman stands amid the destruction caused when a civilian building was hit by a Russian missile in Lviv, western Ukraine. Getty Images

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  Ukrainian soldiers on an armoured personnel carrier, near the front line with Russian troops, in Izyum district, Kharkiv region, north-eastern Ukraine. AFP

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  Ukrainian refugees arrive at the Siret border crossing between Romania and Ukraine. AFP

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  Ukranian soldiers in a trench look out across the front line near Kharkiv. AFP

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  Cars destroyed in Russian attacks, in Irpin, near Kyiv. The scene of fierce fighting, the town was occupied by Russian forces. Reuters

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  Damaged and destroyed vehicles at Illich Iron and Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists in besieged south-eastern city Mariupol. AP

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  Russian military vehicles in an area controlled by Moscow-backed separatists near Mariupol. AP

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  An elderly woman waits do be evacuated from a hospice in Chasiv Yar city, in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. At least 35 residents have been helped to flee from the region that has been under attack for weeks. AP

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  A Ukrainian Interior Ministry serviceman collects unexploded shells, grenades and mines, following fierce fighting in Hostomel. AP

Each missile breaks into three darts after being fired, meaning they can hit a target with successive strikes. Each dart is made up of impact fuses and explosive warheads.

Darts are released as the second stage of the motor burns out.

The missiles have a range of 1,500 metres to 5,500m and a height ceiling of 1,000m.

Missiles are guided by the operator, who tracks the target using a semi-automatic, line-of-sight laser beam.

The system has an operational range of 600 kilometres and a top speed of 50kph and the 12.7-tonne vehicles can be flown to the battlefield on C-17 transport planes.

Specifications

Stormer vehicle firing a Starstreak High Velocity Missile. Photo: Ministry of Defence

• Length: 5.27m
• Width: 2.76m
• Height: 2.49m

The Starstreak missiles are also effective against ground targets. It is estimated that darts can smash through the front armour of battleground vehicles.

“The Stormer/Starstreak combination will be a huge boost to Ukraine’s fighting capability,” said Col Richard Kemp, a former commander of British troops in Afghanistan.

“It is an extremely effective, highly mobile combat vehicle that will do severe damage to any attempts at low-level attack by Putin’s air force.”

The British Army uses Stormer for short-range air defence.

It can be produced in several different configurations, including a two-person turret armed with a 25-millimetre cannon, ambulance or mine layer.