Day: August 29, 2025

• The US said on Thursday that it’s moving ahead with selling 3,350 of its new ERAMs to Kyiv.
• It’s a missile built to give Ukraine a low-cost, extended-range munition to sustain its fight.
• The $850 million package, mostly paid for by European countries, is awaiting congressional approval.

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with the sale of thousands of new American-made missiles built to deepen Kyiv’s inventory of long-range munitions.

The State Department wrote on Thursday that it is proposing the sale of 3,350 Extended-Range Attack Munitions to Ukraine, alongside an equal number of embedded guidance and anti-jamming systems.

The whole package, including training and support for the missile, is estimated to cost $850 million. The statement said Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and the US Foreign Military Financing program would help pay for it.

“This proposed sale will improve Ukraine’s capability to meet current and future threats by further equipping it to conduct self-defense and regional security missions,” the State Department statement said.

Congress must still approve the sale for it to be final, though US lawmakers have never successfully blocked such proposed packages.

The official announcement follows a Saturday report by The Wall Street Journal citing two unnamed US officials as saying the munitions were approved and would arrive in an estimated six weeks.

According to the officials, the approval was delayed until after President Donald Trump met separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this month.

Work on the ERAM began during the Biden administration. The aim was to provide Kyiv with a large quantity of low-cost precision missiles.

When the US Air Force called for contractors in January 2024, it described what looked to be a small cruise missile that could be launched from aircraft such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon to attack ground targets.

Per the Air Force’s request for information at the time, the ERAM is meant to have a range of about 287 miles and carry a 500-pound warhead at speeds of at least 460 miles per hour.

That means the ERAM packs much less firepower than the typical US cruise missile, such as the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, which carries a 1,000-pound payload.

However, the request included an important highlight: Contractors had to be able to produce at least 1,000 missiles a year within two years of starting the project.

The State Department said that Zone 5 Technologies and CoAspire are the principal contractors for the ERAM.

Acquiring over 3,000 extended-range missiles would significantly scale up Kyiv’s arsenal for attacking key Russian assets and positions. While Ukraine has domestically produced and received missiles with more firepower and range, the war has increasingly made clear that militaries cannot just rely on munition quality alone, but also need large quantities to sustain the fight.

A range of 287 miles covers more than a third of Ukraine’s total span, and theoretically allows Ukrainian aircraft to attack anywhere within Russian-controlled territory.

Still, with the ERAM relying on US-made guidance systems, Ukraine may only be permitted to launch strikes with US approval. Kyiv could thus also be blocked from striking targets on Russian soil with the new missile.

The Journal reported on Saturday that the Pentagon had, since the late Spring, been blocking Ukrainian requests to fire the Army Tactical Missile Systems against targets in Russia, which the US had started allowing Kyiv to do last year.

The report came as the Trump administration has tried to bring Ukraine and Moscow to the negotiating table for a ceasefire.