The CIA and the U.S. military have been using a new type of missile during some radio-controlled aircraft strike in late year , according to a paper in theWall Street Journal . What makes this newfangled projectile unique ? It does n’t blow up and rather deploys incisive blades , hitting aim “ like a speeding anvil ” from the sky .
The new projectile , which has never been acknowledge publicly before today , is called the R9X and is a variant of the Hellfire projectile . But unlike a traditional Hellfire , the R9X is design with six tenacious blades that only emerge from the missile mo before impact . The R9X , dub the “ flyingGinsu ” by insiders , does n’t comprise a load . The goal , according to anonymous U.S. official talk with the Journal , is to reduce unnecessary casualties and hopefully only kill the person who was direct in the first place .
War newsperson have been speculating that the U.S. armed services had a new kind of weapon since at least February 2017 , when exposure emerged follow the death of Al Qaeda ’s Abu Khayr al Masri in Syria . The terrorist , an Egyptian national , had been traveling in a Kia sedan that was surprisingly intact after the CIA pilotless aircraft strike , hold the fact that it had just been hit with a projectile .
Contract workers load a Hellfire missile onto a U.S. Air Force MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), at a secret air base in the Persian Gulf region on 17 December 2024.Photo: (Getty Images)
The roof of the Kia was destroyed , and as journalist Tyler Rogoway reportedat the fourth dimension , the car “ literally has a hole plug through its ceiling with no real sign of a large detonation . ”
Multiple report card that a drone strike in Idlib killed Abu Khayr al - Masri , deputy leader of Al - Qaeda ( second in bidding to Ayman al - Zawahiri).pic.twitter.com / JKmJ1ClCE8
— Tobias Schneider ( @tobiaschneider)February 26 , 2017
Another terrorist , Jamal al - Badawi , may have been targeted in Yemen using the novel projectile when he was stamp out in January of 2019 . Al - Badawi helped organise the 2000 bombardment of the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors and wounded at least 40 .
accord to the Journal , the R9X was develop under President Barack Obama in an effort to reduce civilian expiry and has been in maturation since at least 2011 . President Donald Trump has dialed back efforts to limit civilian casualty , even reverse an Obama - era mandatory to report civilian deaths by dronesoutside of state of war zones .
NEW – @WSJconfirms the@CIA&@DeptofDefensehave a raw " secret " missile – the R9X , or " flying Ginsu " – which kill a selected prey with 6 blades , but no volatile payload .
— " To the targeted person , it ’s as if a accelerate anvil fell from the sky . “https://t.co / DIQfnfJYDqpic.twitter.com / iM87WUFLhg
— Charles Lister ( @Charles_Lister)May 9 , 2019
The R9X has been used maybe half a dozen times around the world , harmonise to this raw report , let in in Libya , Syria , Iraq , Yemen , and Somalia . But those numbers could not be independently verified and public affair officials at the U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately answer to Gizmodo ’s asking for commentary this morning .
[ Wall Street Journal ]
Al - QaedaDronesiraqLibyaU.S. military
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