U.S. Unleashes Ninja Missile: The Stealth Weapon Taking Down Terrorists

From targeting to assassination, the strongest in existing missiles
The derivatives appeared as the war against terrorism has recently accelerated
Even without explosives, it performs a formidable killing power
It neutralizes the target through explosives removal and direct impact

There is a small tactical missile considered to be the strongest in the current special operations of the military, from joint strikes of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps to the assassination of terrorists. It is commonly known as the Ninja Missile (bomb).

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 14th (local time) cited a U.S. Department of Defense official, reporting that the U.S. military used the Hellfire R9X to strike the commander of Kata’ib Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian armed force in Iraq, on the 7th, sparking renewed interest. Kata’ib Hezbollah is a force belonging to the Iraqi Islamic Resistance, a coalition that recently attacked a Jordanian U.S. military base with a drone, killing three U.S. soldiers.

The new weapon used by the U.S. military, Hellfire R9X, is equipped with 6 blades instead of explosives on the existing Hellfire missile. It is known to have been jointly developed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. military. After the missile is fired, the blades are folded into the body during the flight process but unfold a few seconds before hitting the target, slashing the surroundings. It is reported to demonstrate a formidable killing power that perfectly eliminates the target without explosives.

Assassination missile eliminates the target without explosives

For this reason, U.S. special forces have nicknamed this new weapon the Ninja Missile. Its use has increased recently due to the advantage of minimizing civilian casualties through explosions.

Previously, the U.S. military used the Ninja Missile to eliminate Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, back in 2017. It was also reported that the R9X, a super-precision assassination missile, was used to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the mastermind of the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda.

Last year, in July 2022, the French AFP news agency reported in a related article that “Looking at the photos of Kabul’s Anka, where al-Zawahiri was assassinated, there are no signs of an explosion, and U.S. officials are saying that other people such as family members were not hurt,” suggesting that the “U.S. appears to have used the R9X missile once again.”

The air-to-missiles Hellfire and Hellfire II were developed as anti-tank missiles of attack helicopters like the AH-64 and AH-1 operated by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. The Hellfire’s outstanding precision strike capability is not limited to anti-tank duties in large-scale armored warfare. Still, it is actively used in anti-terrorist warfare to assassinate high-ranking leaders of terrorist groups.

As the nature of the mission diversified, the Hellfire II replaced the Shaped Charge Warhead, which was specialized for challenging targets, with the high-explosive fragmentation warhead AGM-114M or thermobaric warhead AGM-114N to attack soft targets or targets inside buildings to pinpoint and eliminate targets.

Adopted standard model AGM-114R due to many derivatives

Especially as the Air Force began to equip Hellfire on unmanned attack aircraft, this demand grew even more. Since the missile was designed to operate from low-altitude and low-speed helicopters, there were limitations to attitude changes and high-altitude launches, resulting in derivatives like the AGM-114P and AGM-114P+, dedicated models for fixed-wing aircraft.

As the derivatives became complex, the U.S. Department of Defense began the AGM-169 JCM (Joint Common Missile) project in 2002 to purchase a standardized missile for joint usage by the early three forces. However, the U.S. Department of Defense, which was conducting wars on two fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq, reduced the project cost, and the U.S. Congress canceled the JCM project because it would save much more cost to improve the Hellfire II than to promote the JCM project.

As a result, the AGM-114R Hellfire II was developed and released as a multi-function standard missile. Thanks to its unique position as the successor to the JCM, the Hellfire II R type is collectively referred to as the Hellfire Romeo (meaning the R(Remeo) type among Hellfire missiles).

The Hellfire Romeo is a multi-purpose missile designed to eliminate various targets, from armored vehicles or air defense systems to small high-speed boats, SUV vehicles, or enemy combatants inside caves. Lockheed Martin developed it and successfully launched its initial test in October 2009. After successfully conducting its sixth test launch in March 2011, it was deployed in combat.

PMainlydue to its ability to strike various targets, the Hellfire Romeo replaced all existing Hellfire II (K/M/N/P). As the war against terrorism has recently accelerated, various modified Hellfire Romeo models have emerged, namely the AGM-114R9 series. The R9 series is mainly developed for anti-personnel attacks but is mprimarily used inmissions to eliminate high-value targets (HVT). The R9X, specialized for assassination missions with its unique shape, is also called the Ninja Bomb, and its official name is the AGM-114 Hellfire R9X missile.

Blades unfold before impact, tearing up the surroundings

The AGM-114 Hellfire missile, which has been deployed in combat since 2004, carries 18 to 20 pounds of Metal Augmented Charge (MAC), causing collateral damage when attacking terrorists. In response, the AGM-114 Hellfire R9X, which was secretly developed and started to be deployed in combat in 2017, is a derivative model that almost eliminates collateral damage to civilians by equipping a kinetic warhead and six pop-up blades instead of a bomb, which are pinpointed towards the target.

This is an advantage of a super-precision assassination missile, as it can eliminate only the target personnel without causing civilian casualties. The R9X, a modified version of the Hellfire, is equipped with a non-explosive inertial warhead. Instead of explosives, it contains six lethal blades. It is called a Ninja Missile because the blades unfold just before hitting the target, tearing up the surroundings.

The R9X has a length of approximately 5.3ft, a wing span of approximately 1ft, and a laser guidance system. It retains the features of the Hellfire, which can perform super-precision attacks up to a maximum of approximately 6 miles. Thanks to these features, the U.S. attack drone MQ-9 Reaper is receiving reviews that its performance has been greatly enhanced by equipping this new weapon. The Reaper, known as the Assassin of the Sky, can stay in the sky for up to 14 hours with a top speed of approximately 299 miles and a cruising range of approximately 3,682 miles. Above all, it can conduct operations in the Middle East through remote control from the U.S. mainland and makes almost no noise, making it possible to pinpoint and eliminate key figures of armed forces hiding anywhere in the world.

GM-114R-9X is the latest series

The R-9 series is a high-value target missile used in unmanned attack aircraft. It is characterized by minimizing collateral damage by neutralizing the target with physical collision energy rather than explosive power. For example, AGM-114R-9E is a low collateral damage model that reduces the amount of explosives in the warhead to limit the explosion range. The AGM-114R-9H is known to be a very low collateral damage model that minimizes charge to eliminate damage from shrapnel dispersion as much as possible.

Recently, the existence of Hellfire R9X, a completely new form, has been revealed. The GM-114R-9X immediately removes the explosives from the warhead and neutralizes the target through direct impact. It is characterized by having six folding blades on the outside of the missile that unfold upon descent. Military experts evaluate that tquipping the blades is to maintain a stable posture during descent flight and tncrease lethality.