Explained: All about Hellfire R9X – the drone missile with razor-sharp blades used to kill al-Zawahiri

Source: The post is based on the article “Explained: All about Hellfire R9X – the drone missile with razor-sharp blades used to kill al-Zawahiri” published in Indian Express on 3rd August 2022.

What is the News?

The US military used its ‘secret weapon’ — the Hellfire R9X missile – to kill Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.

What is Hellfire R9X Missile?

Hellfire R9X missile is also known as AGM-114 R9X or Ninja Missile.

It is a US-origin missile known to cause minimum collateral damage while engaging individual targets.

The 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 the massive damage to the surroundings which would be the case with a missile carrying an explosive warhead.