Trusty Stabber

Rusty Dagger was developed under the USAF’s Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) program. This aimed to rapidly field a long-range, low-cost weapon for F-16s, one the size and shape of a Mk82 500-pound bomb. Although the weapon will be used by U.S. forces, the driver was for a weapon to be exported to Ukraine. It is made by California-based Zone 5, a company recently taken over by Norwegian multinational missile makers Kongsberg.

Extending the range of aircraft munitions is a well-established process. Put wings on a guided bomb and it becomes a glide bomb able to hit precision targets at longer ranges, as in Boeing’s JDAM-ER add-on wing kit. KAB glide bombs are a mainstay of Russia’s front-line forces and are used as super-heavy artillery to attack tree lines and buildings.

Add an engine and the powered glide bomb has even longer range, as with Boeing’s JDAM LR kit, and arguably the weapon is now a cruise missile rather than a bomb. Either way Rusty Dagger has wings and a PBS TJ80 turbojet engine, giving it a range of over 285 miles flying at over 460 mph.

After experience with JDAM and other GPS-guided munitions failing due to Russian jamming, Rusty Dagger has advanced anti-jamming hardware, and possibly a backup optical navigation system.

The all-up weight is around 500 pounds. Some of this is taken up with the engine and fuel supply, and the actual warhead is estimated at just 100 pounds. However, the original design had twice the range, so some fuel tankage may have been traded for greater payload.

The pace of development has been impressive by industry standards. The Air Force issued the original “request for proposals” in January 2024, and the program was not launched until October, with contracts awarded just four months later. The first flight was four months after that, with live tests at Eglin AFB in January 2026.

This was supposed to be followed by further testing and low-rate production with the first batch of 10 Rusty Daggers not delivered to Ukraine until this October. However, in early June the Russians recovered what they believed to be components from a Rusty Dagger. Video analysis indicated it was used to atatack the Voronezh plant. It seems that in less than eighteen months since the first fight it is already in action and doing damage.

This is really fast. The Air Force’s AGM-158B JASSM-ER air-launched missile took eight years from first flight to operational capability. The AGM-179 JAGM took 12 years from its 2010 test launch before finally coming into use in 2022.

“Low Cost” Is Relative

The main point of ERAM is to give a low-cost long-range weapon for Ukraine’s fleet of F-16s, a weapon that can be produced in large numbers.

However, scale and cost are all relative. In the rarified world of U.S. missile procurement, Ukraine’s purchase of 3,550 Rusty Daggers for $825 million represents a big order at a low price.

That works out to $246k per missile. This is certainly affordable by the standards of Western cruise missiles; the air-launched Storm Shadow made in the UK cost roughly ten times as much, and only a handful were supplied. There are plenty of examples of more expensive hardware in the DoW ‘s current budget.

But by Ukrainian standard Rusty Dagger is pricey. The FP-1 attack drones, used in the Moscow refinery attack, carried 130-pound warheads to a range of over 900 miles, and cost just $55k each.

The advantage though is that the aircraft-carried weapons can strike much more quickly, giving less time for defenses to react and with a better chance of getting through. And Rusty Dagger can attack harder targets: videos of the Voronezh attack show a high-speed vertical dive punching through the roof of the building before exploding inside.

And it gives Ukraine’s F-16s and other strike aircraft a weapon they can use while staying out of the range of Russian air defenses.

But there may be an alternative.

Made In Ukraine

Last month Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that the country had developed its own glide bomb.

"This is not a copy of Western or Soviet solutions but an original development by Ukrainian engineers designed to effectively strike fortifications, command posts and other enemy targets dozens of kilometres deep after launch," Fedorov stated, in a Telegram post which included a video of a test launch.

This unnamed weapon has a 500-pound warhead and is now ready for combat use, if not already deployed. Fedorov says development took just 17 months and the unique design “was created with the realities of modern warfare in mind" which again probably means an optical or other guidance system which can operate against GPS jamming.

The price is not known, but Ukrainian systems are typically more affordable than their U.S. counterparts. Having reached this stage, adding an engine to increase the range to match Rusty Dagger may not take long.

Ukraine will make good use of the Rusty Daggers from the U.S., and they will be a useful addition to the arsenal. But given the pace of local production, there may not be a second order.