‘Rusty Dagger’: The U.S. Air Force Built a Cheap Cruise Missile in Months Instead of Years. It Did It for Ukraine

‘Rusty Dagger’: The U.S. Air Force Built a Cheap Cruise Missile in Months Instead of Years. It Did It for Ukraine

The U.S. Air Force just compressed a weapons program that normally takes the better part of a decade into a matter of months, fielding a cheap, mass-producible cruise missile called Rusty Dagger. The purpose was not, at first, American: the program was launched primarily to arm Ukraine faster than any conventional acquisition could manage. The process, as much as the missile, is the weapon.

This New U.S. Cruise Missile Went From Drawing Board to Battlefield Faster Than Anyone Thought Possible

Image Courtesy: Keith Thornburgh The U.S. Air Force has developed and tested a new low-cost cruise missile in a fraction of the time normally required, marking one of the fastest weapons acquisition efforts in the service’s history. Designated the AGM-188A Rusty Dagger, the missile was created under the Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) program to […] The post This New U.S. Cruise Missile Went From Drawing Board to Battlefield Faster Than An…