Rusty Dagger Missile: Russia Claims First AGM-188 Kills

The Russian Ministry of Defence has for the first time claimed the destruction of American AGM-188A Rusty Dagger cruise missiles fired by Ukrainian forces, listing four of the new standoff weapons among the targets its air defences shot down over the 24 hours to the morning of November 10. The claim appeared in the ministry’s daily briefing alongside the reported interception of six guided aerial bombs and 802 fixed wing drones, with no location, launch platform or wreckage shown for any of the four missiles. By the evening of November 10 no post naming the missile could be found on the ministry’s main Telegram channel, and the ministry gave no explanation for the change. Ukraine’s armed forces have not commented, and the claim remains unverified, but even as a claim it marks the first time Moscow has officially named a weapon that the Ukrainian Air Force has never acknowledged using.

The Rusty Dagger is the Zone 5 Technologies design developed under the U.S. Air Force’s Extended Range Attack Munition program, or ERAM, which was launched in 2024 to give Ukraine a cheap air launched missile that could be produced in thousands rather than dozens. A second design is being built by CoAspire under the same program. The U.S. State Department on August 28, 2025, approved a possible sale to Ukraine of up to 3,350 ERAM missiles with their navigation units for an estimated $825 million, funded by Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and U.S. Foreign Military Financing. The Air Force reported a successful live warhead test on the Eglin range in Florida on January 21, 2026, less than 16 months after the first contracts were awarded, and a first production batch of 840 missiles was reportedly scheduled for October 2026.

The weapon is a subsonic, turbojet powered missile in the 500 pound class with GPS and inertial guidance, and its range is reported at about 450 kilometres, which would allow Ukrainian aircraft to strike targets well inside Russia without approaching the front line. Ukraine’s F-16 fighters are expected to be the main launch platform, although the missile is also reported to be compatible with the MiG-29, with Poland having pledged two more MiG-29s on October 29 and its deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk stating on November 10 that the transfer arrangements were being finalised. At roughly $250,000 per missile on the figures of the approved sale, including support, the ERAM costs a small fraction of the Storm Shadow and is considerably more affordable than any standoff weapon previously supplied to Kiev, and it reflects a broader Western shift towards weapons whose value lies in numbers rather than in survivability against modern air defences.

The November 10 claim follows months of unconfirmed reports from Russian military channels, which in June alleged that Rusty Dagger missiles had been used against a plant in Voronezh and later published images of debris said to belong to the weapon. Ukraine has meanwhile expanded its long range campaign with drones and domestically built missiles, including the strike on the Kirishi refinery on November 9, while Russian forces have continued firing North Korean KN-23 missiles at Ukrainian energy sites. Russia’s daily interception figures are not independently verified, and the ministry has previously reported shooting down weapons in numbers that Ukrainian and Western officials disputed.