This Cheap Cruise Missile Could Salvage U.S. War Plans For Taiwan
The Rusty Dagger isn't the most powerful missile, but it's easy to build
U.S. Air Force heavy bombers flying from the United States and firing AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Strike Missiles in what amounts to an aerial conveyor belt could rain so much precision firepower on a Chinese invasion force that the defense of Taiwan could be an “almost uncomplicated exercise,” according to a 2023 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
But CSIS assumed U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would have access to the entire inventory of JASSMs and similar Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles—around 4,000 missiles in all.
The think tank didn’t anticipate that U.S. forces would expend around 1,000 JASSMs plus thousands of other precision munitions in a costly war on Iran that has no clear objective and has, if anything, only emboldened the Iranian regime to advance its nuclear weapons program and tighten its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
That alarming munitions wastage is why the successful testing of a new cheap cruise missile is so important. Yes, Lockheed Martin is already producing more than 700 JASSMs a year—and has plans to boost output to 2,000 a year. But it takes four years from the signing of a contract to deliver a batch of JASSMs.
