A cruise missile the size of a 500-pound bomb, manufactured almost entirely by 3D printers, can now fly over 1,000 nautical miles. CoAspire unveiled the RAACM-ER — the extended-range variant of its Rapidly Adaptable Affordable Cruise Missile — at the Sea-Air-Space 2026 exposition near Washington, and the numbers are startling: Tomahawk-like range at a fraction of Tomahawk cost, launched from any aircraft that carries a standard GBU-38 JDAM. The original RAACM was already impressive — a turbojet-powered cruise missile built with additive manufacturing, requiring no tooling during assembly. The ER variant stretches the concept to its logical extreme: more fuel, more range, same tiny footprint.

Printed, Not Machined

The RAACM’s defining feature is how it’s made. By designing every structural component for additive manufacturing, CoAspire eliminated the tooling, jigs, and fixture sets that make conventional missile production slow and expensive. The airframe, internal structures, and aerodynamic surfaces are 3D-printed in metal, then assembled with minimal human labour. Divergent Technologies — the same company that 3D-prints automotive chassis — supplies the structural components. The result is a missile that can be produced in weeks rather than months, scaled from dozens to thousands without retooling, and modified between production runs by changing a software file rather than redesigning a factory.

The Range Revolution

The original RAACM demonstrated a range that, while classified in precise figures, placed it firmly in the tactical standoff category — enough to keep the launch aircraft outside most point-defence envelopes. The ER variant leaps to strategic reach: 1,000 nautical miles puts targets across entire theatres at risk from a single launch point. For context, a Tomahawk Block V reaches approximately 1,000 nautical miles. But the Tomahawk weighs 3,500 pounds, costs around $2 million, and requires a vertical launch cell on a destroyer or submarine. The RAACM-ER weighs roughly 500 pounds, costs a fraction of that figure, and launches from a standard bomb rack on an F-16, F-15, F/A-18, or F-35. That’s not an incremental improvement. It’s a category shift.

Why It Matters Now

The US military is burning through precision munitions in the Iran conflict at rates that have alarmed procurement officials. Tomahawk stocks, JASSM inventories, and even JDAM kits are being consumed faster than industry can replace them. The Pentagon’s FY27 budget includes massive increases for munitions production, but the fundamental problem remains: legacy weapons are expensive and slow to build. The RAACM-ER offers an escape from that trap. If a cruise missile can be 3D-printed at scale, the munitions calculus changes entirely. Instead of hoarding expensive weapons for decisive strikes, commanders can employ affordable missiles in volume — saturating defences, striking distributed targets, and sustaining campaigns without emptying the magazine. CoAspire is positioning the RAACM-ER for both the Air Force and Navy, with ground-launched and ship-launched variants using the same airframe. In an era where the Pentagon’s most urgent need is affordable mass, a cruise missile that prints itself might be exactly what the arsenal needs.

Sources: The War Zone, Naval News, The Defense Post, CoAspire