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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 10 2019, @03:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the sharks-with-frickin-swords-on-their-heads dept.

Submitted via IRC for carny

This Photo Proves How The Hellfire Missile That Uses Blades Instead Of Explosives Works

After the most recent known use of the AGM-114R9X Hellfire missile, a weapon that uses blades instead of explosives to kill its target with minimal collateral damage, literally smashing and slicing through them, evidence of exactly how the bizarre weapon works has come to light. Imagery from the scene of the attack, located less than 10 miles from where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in Syria, shows what appears to be the core of the weapon and its deadly appendages. It appears to be a gruesome, but stunningly effective device.

The image, seen at the top of this story, shows a thick central hub structure that would act as a penetrator with six swing-out skeletonized blades. Basically, anything in the radius of the blades would die.

[...] The payload area is roughly a foot and a half long and let's say the swords are roughly the same length, this would provide about a three and a half foot diameter kill zone, which is similar to what we see in the images of the vehicles that have been struck. It is the ultimate precision air-to-ground weapon—surgical both in metaphor and application.


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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday December 10 2019, @04:56PM (2 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 10 2019, @04:56PM (#930644) Journal

    OK, it's precise. Now do they hit the intended target or some mourners at a funeral? Or do they just hit something, and then claim it was the intended target?

    Precise isn't accurate. To be accurate you need not only precision, but tracking. So how do you track your target, when your kill radius is only 6 feet or so? I doubt you can depend on anyone to carry a given cell phone.

    So I suspect something unmentioned is going on. (One suggestion, that it could be dummy warheads being puffed up by PR, isn't implausible.)

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday December 10 2019, @09:15PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 10 2019, @09:15PM (#930782) Journal
    Both incidents where this munition was alleged to be used hit vehicles. That sounds to me like they targeted and tracked the center of the vehicle rather than a particular person.
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11 2019, @02:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11 2019, @02:59AM (#930929)

    Any 14yr and older male is _defined_ to be a combatant, and therefore a legitimate target per the US rules of engagement.

    Sick fucking shit. Would love to see all those in charge who approved of this shit be sent to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc., for trial and punishment. Set a precedent like that, and those sadistic fuck tards would think twice about going on a murder rampage.