Sharp knives instead of explosives: the secret weapon that killed the al-Qaeda leader
The "Hellfire r9x" missile in American development was not sold even to the close friends of the United States, and remains top secret. Sources familiar with the capabilities of the classified weapon tell about the advantages of the deadly missile that reportedly killed the leader of al-Qaeda in his home
Amir Bohbot
02/08/2022
Tuesday, 02 August 2022, 14:31 Updated: 14:52
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In the video: the US president announces that the US has killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan (Photo: Reuters)
A highly accurate missile with six extremely sharp knives that are pulled out in contact with the target of elimination - leaving him no chance of escape.
This is how the American "Hellfire R9X" missile is described, with which the United States military eliminated al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
What are its capabilities and why was it not sold even to the good friends of the United States?
In the last two decades, Washington and the CIA have drawn sharp criticism, mainly from human rights organizations, for the way in which targeted countermeasures were carried out, with an emphasis on killing uninvolved as collateral damage during attempts to eliminate wanted persons associated with the ISIS and Al-Qaeda organizations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq .
Sometimes, this was due to poor intelligence and sometimes because of inaccurate and powerful and disproportionate weapons.
The review forced the United States to develop highly accurate weapons with as little collateral damage as possible.
One of them was defined as top secret - the "Hellfire" missile.
Hellfire (Photo: GettyImages)
This is a very accurate missile from a popular missile family used mainly by combat helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The missile includes a very advanced and accurate homing warhead for day and night operation.
One of the things that makes this model unique is a unique technology that minimizes the chance of those who are close to the target of elimination being harmed.
Instead of an explosive, which characterizes most Hellfire missiles, which causes environmental damage, six extremely sharp knives were integrated into this missile, which are pulled out on contact with the object and leave no chance for it to be saved.
Hence the weapon received the nickname "Ninja".
According to sources familiar with the weapon's capabilities, it is believed that the knives are not only drawn, but move to increase the damage to the thwarted person.
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The missile itself, which was not sold to countries friendly to the United States and remains top secret, requires accurate intelligence information, good visibility, and accessibility to damage in direct contact with the foil.
Its distinct advantage is the minimization to zero (with the exception of errors in identification) of incidental damage, but a malfunction of the missile and a thwarted miss at a range of half a meter requires additional action.
An operation that usually will not be carried out in a direct installation and may require the use of explosives.
are eliminated
Ayman Zawahiri on the right, and the organization's founder Bin Laden on the left (Photo: Reuters)
For example, the elimination of al-Zawahiri, which was made possible because he was standing exposed and visible on the balcony and allowed the use of the Ninja missile that meets the criteria set by international law.
Along with these capabilities, the missile knows how to navigate between buildings and vehicles, knows how to operate in the forget-and-forget method and with remote control also against stationary and mobile targets and not only against human targets.
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