---
title: "This Photo Proves How The Hellfire Missile That Uses Blades Instead Of Explosives Works"
description: "After a recent strike in Northern Syria, images from the scene feature a key piece of the shadowy weaponed used, the AGM-114R9X. This central core of the missile, with its swing-out sword-like blades, shows us exactly how this gruesome weapon goes about plying its deadly trade."
date: "2019-12-03"
modified: "2019-12-03"
authors:
  - name: "Tyler Rogoway"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.twz.com/authors/tyler-rogoway.md"
url: "https://www.twz.com/31310/this-photo-proves-how-the-hellfire-missile-that-uses-blades-instead-of-explosives-works"
categories:
  - "AGM-114 Hellfire"
  - "Air"
  - "Air Force Munitions"
  - "Air-To-Ground"
  - "Around The Globe"
  - "Drones"
  - "Middle East"
  - "News & Features"
  - "Syria"
  - "Terrorism"
  - "Unmanned"
tags:
  - "AGM-114"
  - "AGM-114R9X"
  - "Blades"
  - "Drone Strike"
  - "Ginsu"
  - "Hellfire"
  - "missile"
  - "MQ-9"
  - "Must Read Features"
  - "swords"
  - "Syria"
  - "Targeted Assassination"
  - "Terrorist"
  - "Very Low Collateral Damage Weapon"
---

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

![](<https://www.twz.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-twz/content/2019/12/53563c.jpg>)
*www.twz.com*

After the [most recent known use](<https://www.twz.com/31297/another-syrian-terrorist-seemingly-killed-by-hellfire-missile-with-pop-out-sword-blades.md>) 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 standard AGM-114 flies at roughly 1,000 miles per hour. It isn't clear if this version of the weapon hits those speeds, but there is no indication otherwise. It's unclear when exactly the blades deploy during use, but it is likely that they extend out from the missile via fairings that pop-off shortly before its flight ends or swing-out through slots in the missile's body. A fuze system or direct inertia system could deploy them once the missile makes contact with a surface, as well.

The Hellfire is just over five feet long, with its warhead section taking up the central area of the missile's tube-like body. You can see how this payload would slot into where the explosive warhead would otherwise go in the image below:

![message-editor%2F1575423218644-1920px-lockheed\_martin\_longbow\_hellfire.jpg](<https://www.twz.com/wp-content/uploads/content-b/message-editor%2F1575423218644-1920px-lockheed_martin_longbow_hellfire.jpg>)
*AGM-114 internal configuration. , *Stahlkocher/Wikicommons**

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.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1126477020827877378

It would be highly interesting to see how this almost comic-book-like adaptation of the AGM-114 came to be. We definitely [know there are places](<https://www.twz.com/29127/detailed-image-comes-to-light-of-secretive-drone-test-base-near-area-51.md>) where these types of payloads are tested and the need for such a weapon obvious, but how such melding of old and new weaponry came to be would be fascinating to understand. In fact, I am just as interested in all the pitches that didn't get selected considering how wild the one that did is.

The image at least verifies how many of us thought this system would work and fits with the few non-attributed descriptions of its general concept of operations.

*Special thanks to Bellingcat's* [*Nick Waters*](<https://twitter.com/N_Waters89>) *who alerted us to this image after Twitter user* [*@obretix*](<https://twitter.com/obretix>) *came across it.*

*Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com*

## Author
Tyler’s passion is the study of military technology, strategy, as well as foreign policy, and he has fostered a dominant voice on those topics in the defense and national security space. Tyler was the creator of the hugely popular defense site *Foxtrot Alpha* before developing *TWZ*, which he continues to lead as the Editor-In-Chief to this day.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/Aviation_Intel>)