Hellfire R9X

Context: 

Weapon CIA used to Kill Al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan. No warhead explosives just blades swing out to kill one guy

1. About

• Hellfire R9X missile is a modified version of the renowned Hellfire missile which was an anti-tank weapon developed in the 1980s and was later modified numerous times, especially after the 9/11 attacks, to target individuals.
• The missile is designed in a way that it can shove more than 100 pounds of metal to kill its target, be it a car or building.
• Better known in military circles as the AGM-114 R9X, the Hellfire R9X is a US-origin missile known to cause minimum collateral damage while engaging individual targets.
• The most lethal aspect of the R9X is the halo of six long blades which are packed inside that deploy through the skin of the missile moments before impact to ensure that it shreds anything in its tracks.
• Also known as the ‘Ninja Missile’, this weapon does not carry a warhead and instead deploys razor-sharp blades at the terminal stage of its attack trajectory. This helps it to break through even thick steel sheets and cut down the target using the kinetic energy of its propulsion without causing any damage to the persons in the general vicinity or to the structure of the building.
• The blades pop out of the missile and cut down the intended target without causing massive damage to the surroundings which would be the case with a missile carrying an explosive warhead.

2. Significance of HellfireR9X

• In the last few years, the US military has carried out a series of airstrikes using secretive weapons.
• To this day, the US authorities have made barely any public statements about the R9X Hellfire missile.
• It appears to be used as a targeted assassination weapon against high-value targets: commanders and other prominent individuals.
• Over the last four years there have only been 11 confirmed cases involving the weapon. Many of these took place in Syria, although the R9X missile is believed to have been used in Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
• At first glance, the R9X missile, described as “a weapon that combines medieval brutality with advanced technology,” by the Wall Street Journal, appears to be an important breakthrough in the U.S. counter-terrorism arsenal.
• Despite its Hellfire connotation, the R9X missile is more like a long-range sniper round than its explosive cousins. The payload allows a drone operator based in the United States to target terrorist leaders anywhere in the world to an accuracy of only a few feet, and potentially without any collateral damage.
• A former US official expressed hopes the weapon could even solve a “right seat, left seat” problem, with the missile, being capable of discriminately targeting passengers in a moving vehicle.
• But there are downsides, including a failure to adequately address ethical and human rights questions and a lack of clarity about if it can be deployed effectively in future battles.

3. Operating Mechanism