The U.S. Air Drive introduced a take a look at of the Household of Reasonably priced Mass Munitions-Lugged, with photographs exhibiting the weapon was a Rusty Dagger low-cost cruise missile.
The U.S. Air Drive introduced that it accomplished in March 2026 a sequence of integration trials of one of many Prolonged Vary Assault Munition (ERAM) weapons, the Rusty Dagger low-cost air-launched surface-strike cruise missile developed by Zone 5 Applied sciences. The weapon was launched by an F-16 Combating Falcon jet from Eglin AFB, Florida.
The Apr. 13 press launch mentioned the take a look at marketing campaign included a sequence of captive carry and launch trials, together with “match and performance checks, validation of loading procedures, and making certain flight compatibility of the FAMM-L and F-16.” The discharge added “this effort culminated with the carriage and launch of the weapon off the F-16.”
The assertion doesn’t establish both the Rusty Dagger, the developer Zone 5 or the ERAM program designation, however slightly makes use of the Household of Reasonably priced Mass Munitions-Lugged (FAMM-L) designation, that this system got here to be named subsequently. The ERAM designation, nevertheless, could be seen stenciled on the inert weapon, along with a serial quantity beginning with “RD,” the initials of Rusty Dagger.
Zone 5 itself reshared Eglin AFB’s LinkedIn put up, saying it was “proud to have supported Workforce Eglin’s speedy Rusty Dagger integration on the F-16.” The corporate added “Collectively, we’re making ‘Reasonably priced Mass’ a actuality with precision strike capabilities at scale!”
I firmly imagine that weapons usually match the price of what’s taken out by way of secondary results if indirectly, however at ~$250k (will drop with scale) and tens if not lots of of those being employed by a number of platforms adjustments that value imbalance equation drastically in each method. pic.twitter.com/E1wkqwOSSQ
— Abd (@blocksixtynine) April 17, 2026
This new take a look at marketing campaign follows a Jan. 21, 2026, live-warhead take a look at of a standoff cruise missile by the 96th Check Wing on the Eglin Check and Coaching Vary (ETTR. On that event, the service particularly recognized the weapon because the ERAM.
The ERAM program was initially launched to arm Ukrainian jets with easy, scalable and jam-resistant cruise missiles. The aim was to throw in inexpensive air-launched mass towards Russia, with decrease prices in comparison with present cruise missiles.
Rusty Dagger exams
The March exams present the F-16D Block 50 of the Workforce Eglin Check Enterprise carrying two Rusty Daggers, together with two CATM-120 AMRAAMs, a CATM-9 Sidewinder short-range AAM, and an AN/AAQ-28 Litening pod. The 96th Check Wing and 58th Wing have been liable for the combination and operational take a look at respectively.
The 780th Check Squadron commander Lt. Col. Brett Tillman known as it “an ideal demonstration of take a look at readiness to fulfill warfighter wants.” Tillman additional mentioned that “integrating the complete take a look at workforce allowed us to soundly take a look at and ship a vital functionality at unbelievable pace.”
The fortieth Flight Check Squadron commander Lt. Col. Taylor Wilson underscored how the workforce is “accelerating experimentation” for quickly operationalizing the weapon. “The workforce was in a position to quickly generate and execute sorties to ship essential knowledge for evaluating new, progressive warfighter capabilities,” mentioned Wilson.
The sooner live-warhead take a look at on Jan. 21 on the ETTR in the meantime “met all main targets together with a full warhead detonation, and gathered vital knowledge to mature a brand new, cost-effective, long-range strike functionality.” The discharge highlighted that the take a look at came about in “lower than 16 months from this system’s preliminary contract award.”
Whereas it’s not clear which platform was used to launch the Rusty Dagger, the weapon can clearly be recognized within the formally launched sequence of photographs, capturing the missile heading down vertically on a static goal, earlier than its stay warheads explodes.
The discharge known as the ERAM a “next-generation, air-launched cruise missile designed to offer inexpensive mass to the struggle.” The service additional defined that “it delivers an economical, precision-guided, stand-off functionality towards high-value fastened targets,” whereas being “quickly producible in giant numbers.”
This really must be the AGM-188A Rusty Dagger being licensed/built-in which falls underneath the Prolonged Vary Assault Munition (ERAM) effort and by extension the FAMM umbrella. Whereas the requirement threshold was 250nm, the AGM-188A pushes that out to almost 500nm (930km). pic.twitter.com/IdWi9g1G1N
— Abd (@blocksixtynine) April 17, 2026
“Shifting from a contract to a live-fire demonstration in underneath two years proves we will ship deadly, cost-effective functionality on the pace of relevance,” mentioned Brig. Gen. Robert Lyons III, Portfolio Acquisition Govt for Weapons.
Speedy progress
The Air Drive Life-Cycle Administration Heart (AFLCMC) first sought the air-launched tactical, scalable, low-cost air-to-ground weapon in June 2024. By August 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration had accredited 3,350 items to be bought to Ukraine, evidencing that issues moved fairly quick in the meanwhile.
Two weapons have been downselected, with the primary being the Rusty Dagger. The opposite low-cost cruise missile as part of the ERAM program is CoAspire’s Quickly Adaptable Reasonably priced Cruise Missile (RAACM), which the corporate examined in August 2025 on an A-4 Skyhawk.
The U.S. navy can also be envisaging low-cost air-launched munitions blurring the strains between long-range One Means Assault (OWA) drones and cruise missiles, like Mission Artemis.The ERAM challenge progressed independently and quickly, transferring from conception (July 2024) to manufacturing (September 2025) in simply 14 months.
From ERAM to FAMM-L
Air and House Forces Journal shed additional gentle in a Mar. 24, 2026, report about Air Drive acquisitions chief Brig. Gen. Robert P. Lyons III’s look earlier than the Senate Armed Providers Committee (SASC). The publication mentioned that the service contracted Zone 5 Applied sciences and CoAspire for the ERAM in “late-2024.”
Thus, from the time of conception, the ERAM program progressed to the contracting stage in 4 months, fielded flying prototypes in 4 to seven months, and entered manufacturing in simply 14 months.
Underneath the title ERAM, 🇺🇦will buy missiles from 2 mfrs without delay, with the first batch anticipated by the tip of 2026.In response to AviationWeek, 🇺🇦will procure 2 several types of 🚀to be launched from each F-16 and MiG-29 jets: the Rusty Dagger by Zone 5 and the RAACM by CoAspire. pic.twitter.com/en42OMMr9h
— 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝕯𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝕯𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔦𝔠𝔱△ 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇺🇲🇬🇷 (@TheDeadDistrict) September 6, 2025
The ERAM then figured because the Household of Reasonably priced Mass Munitions (FAMM) program within the service’s Fiscal Yr 2026 funds request’s Missile Procurement part, searching for $656,333 for 3,010 items. Within the Analysis, Growth, Check and Analysis part of the FY2026 funds doc, the FAMM even encompassed the Speedy Dragon palletized launch program.
The funds doc harassed upon the low-cost, and mass-producible options of the FAMM weapons:
“The Household of Reasonably priced Mass Missiles (FAMM) might be a Modular Weapon Sequence (M-Sequence), open-architected munition for long-range, affordability, excessive producibility, and palletized employment. FAMM lifecycle prototyping actions will embrace integration and flight demonstrations of inexpensive and extremely manufacturable small turbine engines, seekers/sensors, networked datalinks, collaborative autonomy behaviors, and ordnance (warhead/fuse). Work can even embrace testing and certification of palletized mass employment munition flight automobiles.”
The ERAM/FAMM’s origins date again even additional to the Air Drive’s Enterprise Check Car (ETV) program, which aimed to develop a low-cost, palletized, air-to-surface munition. Current protection trade heavyweights have additionally developed their very own cost-effective, scalable palletized-launch surface-strike munitions.
Leidos’s Black Arrow, that the Air Drive designated because the AGM-190A in February, and Lockheed Martin’s Frequent Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT) are two of them. The CMMT has two variations, together with an unpowered glide-vehicle known as CMMT-D and a smaller powered variant known as CMMT-X.
#Czechia/#USA 🇨🇿🇺🇸: PBS Aerospace, a member of the Czech PBS Group (@PBS_GRP), a jet engine producer, at the moment introduced that it has signed a big subcontract with Zone 5 Applied sciences, Inc. The contract is valued at tens of hundreds of thousands of USD.
The contract follows the… pic.twitter.com/qRuiC8HtA5
— 𝕻𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖘𝖊 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕾𝖙𝖊𝖕𝖍 (@praisethesteph) February 25, 2026
