On August 28, 2025, the US Department of Defense's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) sent a notification to the US Congress about the planned supply of 3,350 new high-precision aircraft guided missiles Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) to Ukraine through the US Intergovernmental Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The delivery is approved by the U.S. Department of State. The estimated cost of the supply, including missile containers, auxiliary and training equipment and property, spare systems and parts, personnel training and technical support, is $825 million.
The small-sized aviation cruise missile RAACM (Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile) developed by the American company CoAspire, intended for delivery to Ukraine under the Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) program (c) CoAspire
Earlier on August 24, The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported on the decision of the administration of US President Donald Trump to supply Ukraine with 3,350 new ERAM missiles, citing informed sources, while claiming that the first samples of missiles should be delivered to the armed forces of Ukraine "in six weeks."
According to the DSCA notification, the delivery should include, in addition to 3350 ERAM missiles, also 3350 inertial satellite guidance modules for them equipped with a Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) type Y-Code or M-Code.
Financing for the supply of ERAM missiles to Ukraine, according to the notification, should be provided by Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, as well as through US military assistance through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) mechanism. It is explicitly stated that "the ERAM system is an example of collaboration with our NATO allies to develop an efficient and scalable system that can be delivered in a short time."
The notification names Zone 5 Technologies and CoAspire as the general contractors of the delivery, and this, apparently, finally clarifies the issue of the appearance of the ERAM missiles.
ERAM (Extended Range Air Munition) missiles have been developed as a cheap, mass-produced, high-precision aviation munition on behalf of the US Air Force since January 2024, while the contractors have not been disclosed. In July 2024, the US Air Force published a relatively detailed assignment for the ERAM project, according to which ERAM missiles were created primarily for Ukraine, and the assignment assumed "the possibility of equipping foreign-type fighters with them." According to the assignment, the ERAM munition must have a range of at least 250 nautical miles (463 km), a cruising speed of at least 0.6 M, a launch mass of 500 pounds (227 kg) and a fragmentation warhead with a programmable fuse. It was necessary to achieve a 10 m CVO even in conditions of GPS signal suppression. Another requirement for ERAM was the contractor's ability to quickly ramp up production to more than 1,000 missiles per year within 24 months of signing the contract, so apparently the supply of 3,360 missiles to Ukraine is designed for several years.
According to a number of recent publications, which have now been confirmed by the DSCA notification, ERAM actually hides two small-sized aircraft cruise missiles - Rusty Dagger developed by Zone 5 Technologies (San Luis Obispo, California) and RAACM (Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile) developed by CoAspire (Fairfax, Virginia). As you can understand, both of these types of missiles will be supplied to Ukraine under the designation ERAM.
Both types of missiles, judging by their well-known appearance, are typical small-sized aviation cruise missiles made with stealth elements, with a retractable wing and a small turbojet engine.
The Rusty Dagger missile developed by Zone 5 Technologies, officially designated as the Rusty Dagger Open Weapon Platform, has been tested since the beginning of 2025 as part of the USAF Enterprise Test Vehicle program to demonstrate prototypes of modular, low-cost air-to-surface aviation weapons. Zone 5 Technologies demonstrated a video of test launches of the Rusty Dagger rocket from an old experimental A-4 Skyhawk aircraft. At the same time, the Rusty Dagger has a flight range of "more than 500 nautical miles" (more than 900 km) and is equipped with an inertial-satellite, as well as a terrain-based correlation guidance system.
The RAACM missile was created by CoAspire as part of the US Air Force's Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile program of the same name, which, apparently, was the "internal" basis of the "Ukrainian" ERAM program. For the first time, the CoAspire RAACM was publicly presented in April 2025 at the Sea Air Space 2025 exhibition and conference, at the same time, it was announced that successful test launches of the rocket also carried out from the A-4 Skyhawk aircraft in March. It is claimed that the missile has the dimensions of a standard 500-pound Mk 82 aerial bomb and is made with extensive use of 3D printing. According to reports, the US Air Force and Navy have already allocated funds for the integration of RAACM missiles into the armament of their F-15E, F-16C/D, F/A-18E/F and F-35A/B/C. CoAspire also offers the use of RAACM missiles in the "pallet" drop system. Rapid Dragon from the ramp of military transport aircraft, as well as the RAACM-S land and ship launch option from containerized launchers and integrated into the datalink missile guidance system.
On August 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense allocated additional funds to accelerate work on the ERAM program. As part of the revised contract, CoAspire received more than $33.8 million instead of the $13.2 million originally allocated to it. In turn, Zone 5 Technologies received an increase in financing under its ERAM contract from $7.7 million to $33.5 million.
The Wall Street Journal emphasized in its publication that, due to the significant range of the ERAM missiles, each use of the ERAM by the Armed Forces of Ukraine will require the approval of the US Department of Defense, just as it is done with the ATACMS tactical missiles supplied to Ukraine.
The small-sized aircraft cruise missile Rusty Dagger Open Weapon Platform of the American company Zone 5 Technologies, intended for delivery to Ukraine under the Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) program (c) Zone 5 Technologies
Video about the Rusty Dagger Open Weapon Platform rocket from Zone 5 Technologies (c) Zone 5 Technologies :
Images of the use of the RAACM (Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile) cruise missile developed by the American company CoAspire from various media (c) CoAspire
Video about the CoAspire RAACM rocket (c) CoAspire and Naval News :
