Navy Awards $70M to CoAspire for Ground-Launched RAACM-ER Cruise Missile Under CHAOS Program
The OTA timing is not coincidental. With the Hormuz blockade now 140+ days active and the Iran conflict consuming $21B in emergency munitions, the Navy is simultaneously securing allied strike capacity and reducing U.S. inventory drain.
RAACM-ER's passive infrared seeker and GPS navigation sidestep the supply constraints on active-radar seekers that plague Patriot and SAMP/T upgrades. If CoAspire can deliver a 12-18 month prototype-to-FMS cycle, allies like Poland, Japan, and South Korea gain a maritime strike option that doesn't compete with U.S. air-defense procurement — a critical constraint when Europe is co-producing SAMP/T and Germany is studying Patriot alternatives.
The CHAOS program directly addresses the $21B munitions replenishment request the Pentagon filed just yesterday — allies now have an affordable alternative to PAC-3 and JASSM derivatives that can scale production without the industrial bottleneck consuming U.S. inventory.
CoAspire's $70M OTA locks in a foreign military sale pathway at a cost point below the $100K-per-unit interceptors (like X-Bow's Buckler) that are already straining sustainment budgets. If RAACM-ER reaches production at scale, it offloads strike demand from U.S. inventory, freeing munitions for the active Iran conflict and Taiwan contingency planning.
Has the Navy selected competing contractors under CHAOS, or is CoAspire the sole awardee? The article states this is unknown — clarity on competitive selection will signal whether CHAOS becomes a true allied production ecosystem or a single-vendor program.
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