The French air force is receiving 500 SCALP EG cruise missiles. This is a European designed and built missile first used by the Royal Air Force in Iraq during early 2003. The design was based on the older French Apache airfield-attack missile, and built largely to British specifications. Each 17 foot long missile weighs 1.3 tons and uses inertial guidance, GPS and terrain following to find it's target once launched. With a range of 250 kilometers, it can carry a variety of 500 pound warheads. Terminal guidance can use infrared (heat) imaging for greater accuracy. Each missile costs about $1.2 million, but the long range and high accuracy makes it an ideal weapon to taking out heavily defended targets. Development was rather quick, as it began in 1997 and the missile entered service in 2002.