The CoAspire RAACM, or Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile, is a 3D printed subsonic cruise missile built in the United States by CoAspire LLC of Fairfax, Virginia. Its extended range variant, the RAACM-ER, is credited with a range above 1,000 nautical miles.
CoAspire is one of two vendors behind the US$825 million ERAM sale to Ukraine, and holds US Air Force FAMM and LCCM framework agreements. It will show both missiles at AFA Air, Space and Cyber from 14 to 16 September 2026.
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Key facts
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Family | RAACM, RAACM-ER, GHOST (boosted ground-launched derivative of RAACM-ER) |
| Acronym | Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile. CoAspire styles it RAACM with a trademark symbol |
| US designation | None allocated. No MDS appears in any public record |
| Manufacturer | CoAspire LLC, Fairfax, Virginia; production at Manassas, Virginia |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Category | Subsonic turbojet cruise missile, 500 lb class; affordable mass munition |
| First public display | Sea-Air-Space 2025, 6 to 9 April 2025, National Harbor, Maryland |
| Range, RAACM | “Hundreds of miles” (CoAspire-stated). No figure in units published |
| Range, RAACM-ER | Greater than 1,000 nm / 1,852 km (manufacturer-attributed). Derived estimates of about half that also circulate. CoAspire says it does not discuss product range |
| Length, RAACM-ER | About 10 ft / 3.05 m, as reported by Defense Daily |
| Length, wingspan and diameter, RAACM | Not disclosed |
| Warhead | Modular. Type and weight not disclosed |
| Propulsion | Turbojet, supplier not disclosed. Solid rocket booster for surface and ground launch |
| Guidance and seeker | GPS navigation with a long-wave infrared sensor in the nose (CoAspire-stated) |
| Unit cost | Not disclosed. FAMM figures cited: US$100,000 (Franklin aspiration), about US$218,000 (Defense News), about US$450,000 (budget-derived average) |
| Operators | None in service. Contracted to the US Air Force and US Navy; one of two ERAM designs in the US$825m Ukraine sale |
What is the CoAspire RAACM?
The RAACM missile is a turbojet-powered cruise missile sized to a 500 lb class Mk 82 bomb or GBU-38 JDAM, and designed around additive manufacturing. Payloads can be swapped to change the effect delivered.
RAACM sits in the affordable mass category, where quantity substitutes for capability.
It is one of three systems under the US Air Force Family of Affordable Mass Missiles framework agreements, with the Anduril Barracuda-500 and Zone 5 Rusty Dagger.
RAACM-ER is the extended range variant. GHOST is a boosted, ground-launched derivative of it.
Who makes the CoAspire RAACM?
CoAspire LLC was founded in 2013 by Douglas J. Denneny, its owner and chief executive, and Stacey H. Denneny, its chief operating officer. It is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business.
Its 22 July 2026 release describes the company as privately owned by its two founders, with no outside investors and 13 profitable years.
Federal obligations traceable to CoAspire in USASpending.gov total under US$4.2 million, against two framework agreements and the US$70 million Navy award.
Douglas Denneny is a former US Navy flight officer and TOPGUN instructor. Kypp Wetmore, vice-president for technical operations, was previously chief engineer of the US Air Force Armament Directorate, which later awarded the RAACM contract.
CoAspire RAACM Specifications
CoAspire publishes very little, and gives RAACM range only as “hundreds of miles”.
Dimensions are not disclosed. Denneny told The War Zone that “when we designed the original RAACM, we knew that it was going to be the size of a GBU-38”, an analogy rather than a measurement.
The GBU-38 is 92.6 in long with a 14 in diameter, and no wingspan is published for it. Those are the bomb’s dimensions, and CoAspire has never confirmed the missile matches them.
Warhead type and weight are not disclosed, and no source names the turbojet supplier.
RAACM carries GPS navigation and a long-wave infrared nose sensor, according to Denneny. How it navigates in GPS-denied conditions is not disclosed.
The Defense Post reported a range above 300 km and Naval News estimated 450 km, neither from CoAspire.
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What is the RAACM-ER?
Denneny told The War Zone that “despite the nomenclature, the RAACM-ER is a new design, rather than a modification of the RAACM”.
A range greater than 1,000 nautical miles, about 1,852 km, is widely attributed to the missile. CoAspire says it does not discuss the range of its products, and derived estimates of roughly half that also circulate.
Defense Daily reported it at about 10 ft long, and quoted Denneny giving it twice the baseline’s range.
RAACM-ER carries GPS navigation and the same long-wave infrared nose sensor, and engages static land and moving maritime targets. Ground-launched versions add a booster.
It is under contract and had not flown as of September 2026.
The US Navy selected ground-launched RAACM-ER for the CHAOS programme under a US$70 million prototype agreement, announced on 22 July 2026.
CHAOS, or Coalition Heterogenous Affordable Offensive Strike, is built for foreign military sales to allies and coalition partners.
That award was announced at the Farnborough International Airshow, where CoAspire showed a RAACM-ER model, its only confirmed appearance outside the United States.
How the CoAspire RAACM is launched
The only disclosed launch platform is an A-4 Skyhawk, flown over the Gulf of Mexico in March 2025 and that summer.
CoAspire states that RAACM can be integrated on any aircraft carrying precision guided munitions, and Divergent Technologies describes it as launchable from any GBU-38-compatible aircraft. Funded integration covers the F-15E, F/A-18E/F and F-35.
Palletized launch runs through Rapid Dragon and its successor, Dragon Cart. Rounds carried per aircraft are not disclosed.
GHOST pairs RAACM-ER with a booster and a container launcher under the Low-Cost Containerized Munition (LCCM) framework, covering roughly 10,000 rounds across four vendors.
CoAspire RAACM Program Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2013 | CoAspire LLC founded in Fairfax, Virginia |
| 6 March 2020 | US Air Force SBIR Phase I for a Guided Training Round, US$49,923 |
| 25 February 2022 | CoAspire becomes the first on-ramp to the Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition Contract |
| 29 March 2022 | US Navy SBIR Phase II through NAVAIR, US$1,085,766 |
| 17 April 2023 | US Air Force RAACM contract FA865823CB002, US$2,399,848, awarded by AFLCMC Armament Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base |
| FY2024 | US$5 million Congressional add for RAACM in the FY2024 NDAA |
| March 2025 | First disclosed flight test, launched from an A-4 Skyhawk |
| 6 to 9 April 2025 | RAACM displayed publicly at Sea-Air-Space 2025 |
| August 2025 | Summer 2025 long-range flight test video cleared for public release |
| 28 August 2025 | DSCA approves a US$825 million Foreign Military Sale to Ukraine of up to 3,350 ERAM rounds, naming CoAspire and Zone 5 Technologies as principal contractors |
| Late 2025 | US Air Force selects RAACM for a developmental other transaction agreement. Value not disclosed |
| 6 January 2026 | Manassas production facility ribbon-cutting |
| 20 to 21 April 2026 | RAACM-ER revealed at Sea-Air-Space 2026 |
| 13 May 2026 | LCCM framework agreement signed with the US Department of War for GHOST |
| 15 July 2026 | FAMM framework agreements signed with Anduril, CoAspire and Zone 5 Technologies |
| 22 July 2026 | US$70 million US Navy CHAOS prototype other transaction agreement announced at the Farnborough International Airshow, where a RAACM-ER model was displayed |
| 14 to 16 September 2026 | CoAspire is due to show full-size RAACM and RAACM-ER at AFA Air, Space and Cyber. New figures may be disclosed there |
Why the RAACM is called a 3D printed cruise missile
CoAspire markets RAACM as a 3D printed cruise missile, and says designing for additive manufacturing means it “requires no tooling during assembly, greatly reducing touch labor and cost”.
The partner is Divergent Technologies of Torrance, California, which supplied the fuselage, wings and fins through its Divergent Adaptive Production System.
The schedule figures are specific. Divergent delivered first hardware 10 weeks from design start, and ground testing followed at 14 weeks.
CoAspire states it designed, built and flew RAACM within four months, and that the printed fuselage is shaped to maximize fuel volume.
No part count has ever been published. Despite additive manufacturing being the company’s headline pitch, neither firm has released a part count, a reduction figure, a material specification, a printer type or a cost per round.
The claims are strong on schedule compression and tooling elimination, and silent on the metrics additive manufacturing usually leads with. Denneny gave the export consequence in April 2026: “additive allows us to put production facilities anywhere in the world”.
Cruise Missile Cost: CoAspire RAACM Against JASSM-ER and Tomahawk
No unit cost has been published for RAACM or RAACM-ER. Three FAMM figures circulate, and they are not interchangeable.
US$100,000 per round is the aspiration carried over from Franklin, the earlier Defense Innovation Unit programme. Defense News separately reports about US$218,000.
The FAMM budget line, US$12.6 billion for about 28,000 rounds across FY2027 to FY2031, divides out at about US$450,000, subject to congressional authorisation.
The War Zone framed RAACM-ER against a Maritime Strike Tomahawk cost of US$3.64 million.
| System | Manufacturer | Range | Warhead or payload | Reported unit cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAACM | CoAspire | “Hundreds of miles” (CoAspire-stated) | Modular, not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| RAACM-ER | CoAspire | More than 1,000 nm (manufacturer-attributed) | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Barracuda-500 / AGM-189A | Anduril Industries | More than 500 nm / 930 km (Anduril-stated) | More than 100 lb / 45 kg | About US$200,000 reported. No contract value published |
| AGM-188A Rusty Dagger | Zone 5 Technologies | More than 930 km / 500 nm (Parsch, who cautions his figures may be inaccurate) | 45 kg / 100 lb | Not disclosed |
| CMMT-D | Lockheed Martin | About 500 nm (reported) | Configurable | About US$150,000 |
| AGM-158B JASSM-ER | Lockheed Martin | More than 900 km | 450 kg penetrator | US$1.1 million to US$2.6 million |
| Tomahawk Block V / Maritime Strike Tomahawk | RTX | More than 1,600 km | 1,000 lb class | US$3.64 million |
If the figure attributed to RAACM-ER holds, it is the longest-ranged low cost cruise missile in the FAMM field. On the lower estimate it sits alongside Barracuda-500 and Rusty Dagger.
RAACM is also the least specified. Payload weights exist for Barracuda-500 from Anduril and for Rusty Dagger through Parsch; CoAspire gives none.
How the CoAspire RAACM Compares to the GIDS Rasoob 250
No public source connects CoAspire to any Pakistani programme, and the GIDS Rasoob 250 carries no published additive manufacturing claim.
The two sit in different weight classes. Rasoob 250 is given as 285 kg with a 350 km range, a 75 kg semi-armour-piercing warhead and Mach 0.7 cruise.
They share a design philosophy: a small subsonic cruise missile for cheap and slow platforms, priced for volume, not peak performance.
The comparison point that holds is exportability. Denneny states that additive manufacturing lets CoAspire site production anywhere in the world, and CHAOS exists to serve foreign military sales customers.
Pakistan’s entry into the global race to build cheap cruise missiles therefore runs against a US design built to be produced offshore.
Who Operates the CoAspire RAACM?
No armed force operates the RAACM in service. CoAspire states it is in production for a US government customer, without naming it.
The US Air Force funded the 2023 RAACM contract, the late 2025 developmental agreement and the FAMM framework. The US Navy funded SBIR Phase II work and the CHAOS agreement.
Ukraine is the first named export customer. CoAspire is one of two ERAM vendors, alongside Zone 5 Technologies.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency approved a Foreign Military Sale of up to 3,350 Extended Range Attack Munition rounds worth US$825 million on 28 August 2025.
The release names both firms as principal contractors without splitting the quantity between the two designs. Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway fund the sale alongside US Foreign Military Financing.
That is the largest known order touching the RAACM, and sits within the wider set of US affordable strike programmes now reaching contract.
What is Not Publicly Known About the CoAspire RAACM
- Turbojet engine supplier and model, for every member of the family
- Warhead type and weight for RAACM, RAACM-ER and GHOST
- Length, wingspan, diameter and launch weight of the baseline RAACM
- Part count, materials and printer types used in additive manufacturing
- Unit cost for any variant, and CoAspire’s production rate
- Value of the FAMM and LCCM frameworks
- Navigation in GPS-denied conditions, and carriage per aircraft
- How the 3,350 ERAM rounds split between the two vendors
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Frequently asked questions about the CoAspire RAACM
What does RAACM stand for?
RAACM stands for Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile, and CoAspire styles it with a trademark symbol. The extended range variant is RAACM-ER and the boosted ground-launched derivative is GHOST, for which no acronym expansion has been published.
Who makes the CoAspire RAACM?
CoAspire LLC makes the RAACM. It is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business founded in 2013 in Fairfax, Virginia, with production at Manassas, privately owned by founders Douglas and Stacey Denneny with no outside investors.
How much does a cruise missile cost in the RAACM class?
CoAspire has not disclosed a unit cost for the RAACM or RAACM-ER. Three FAMM figures circulate: US$100,000 as the Franklin aspiration, about US$218,000 reported by Defense News, and about US$450,000 derived from the US$12.6 billion budget line for about 28,000 rounds.
What is the range of the CoAspire RAACM-ER?
A range greater than 1,000 nautical miles, about 1,852 km, is widely attributed to the RAACM-ER, but CoAspire says it does not discuss the range of its products. Estimates of roughly half that circulate, and Defense Daily quoted Denneny giving twice the baseline’s range.
Is the CoAspire RAACM going to Ukraine?
CoAspire is one of two ERAM vendors, and the split is not published. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency approved an US$825 million sale to Ukraine of up to 3,350 ERAM rounds on 28 August 2025, naming CoAspire and Zone 5 Technologies as principal contractors.
How is the CoAspire RAACM launched?
The RAACM has flown in test only from an A-4 Skyhawk, and CoAspire states it can integrate on any aircraft carrying precision guided munitions, with funded work on the F-15E, F/A-18E/F and F-35. Palletized launch runs through Dragon Cart and GHOST fires from a container.
Is the RAACM really a 3D printed cruise missile?
The RAACM fuselage, wings and fins are additively manufactured by Divergent Technologies, and CoAspire states the design requires no tooling during assembly. Neither firm has published a part count, materials or printer types.
How does the CoAspire RAACM compare to the Anduril Barracuda-500?
Anduril gives the Barracuda-500 more than 500 nautical miles with a payload above 100 lb, at a reported unit price of about US$200,000. The RAACM-ER is credited with more than 1,000 nautical miles, but CoAspire publishes no range, payload weight or unit cost of its own.
