Hellfire R9X missile likely behind deaths of Al Qaeda commanders in Syria – Task & Purpose
The absence of an explosion and the pattern of damage to the roof and sides of the vehicle suggest that the drone didn’t employ a conventional precision-guided munition but the R9X variant of the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a non-explosive weapon that can best be described as a 100-pound flying switchblade or an anvil covered in swords.
First publicized by the Wall Street Journal in 2019 and colloquially known as the “flying Ginsu” or “ninja bomb,” the R9X is elegant in its simplicity: rather than packing an explosive payload, the kinetic warhead contains a halo of blades that deploy moments before impact and effectively eviscerate a target without the potential civilian casualties that accompany a large explosion.
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