MiG-29 and F-16 Interoperable: Ukraine Will Receive 840 ERAM Missiles in 2026

The delivery of the first batch of 840 ERAM missiles to Ukraine is scheduled for October 2026.

This was reported by Aviation Week, citing US Air Force documents at its disposal.

A trial batch of 10 missiles is expected to be delivered to Ukraine as early as October this year.

A report by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency to the US Congress confirmed the possibility of using these missiles from American F-16 fighters and Soviet MiG-29s.

According to the documents, with a budget of $225 million and an accelerated procurement process, the Working Group on Arms Exports spent just over a year to request ERAM, sign contracts with two defense companies, test the weapons at a US test site and on MiG series fighter jets, and obtain prototypes.

The ERAM project missiles are manufactured by two companies: CoAspire from Virginia and Zone 5 Technologies from California.

CoAspire’s Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise (RAACM) missile weighs 500 pounds (250 kg) and is equipped with a warhead with a combined penetrating and fragmentation effect. It is designed to use a detonator with several modes of operation. The missile can be mounted on an aircraft platform and reach subsonic speeds of up to 200 m/s.

At the same time, the technical characteristics of the missile variant from Zone 5 Technologies – Rusty Dagger – are not currently disclosed, but due to the similarity of the technical specifications, they should be close to those of the missile from CoAspire.

At the end of August, US officials officially approved the sale of up to 3,550 ERAM missiles to Ukraine.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the export agreement, setting a 30-day period for lawmakers to review the proposed contract.

Production of ERAM (Extended-Range Attack Missile) missiles for Ukraine began in the spring of 2025.

The ERAM missiles are being developed as part of a program to create relatively inexpensive cruise missiles for the US and Ukrainian air forces.