Sword Sunday #1 - Crossing a sword with a Guided Missile.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you crossed a sword with a guided missile?

I know, its a really weird question.

But it turns out that the weapons developers at Lockheed Martin actually answered it with a weapon called the AGM-114 R9 X Helfire.

The originalhellfire missile was first deployed in 1984, and was designed to destroy soviet tanks in a land war in Europe. Since then the weapon has been improved and modified for multiple missions, including the war on terror. It was used with devastating effect in the first Gulf war, where Iraqi vehicles were destroyed with impunity by groups of Army Apache gunships.

AGM-114 R9 X is believed to be 100 pounds, five and a half foot long, and either laser, or radar guided. The explosive warhead has been replaced with folding blades that are between 12 and 18 inches long. When deployed, they would give the weapon a kill range of of about three feet across. In flight, the Hellfire reaches a top speed of just under 1000 miles per hour.

The purpose of this is not enhanced lethality. In fact, its the exact opposite. The R9 X was developed as a ultra precise, long range weapon that could take out a single, high-value person with minimal chance of collateral damage.

Fired from a helicopter, airplane, or drone, the Hellfire missile has a range of over 6 miles (11km), and is able to accurately home in on a moving target less than 3 feet across. By harnessing this accuracy and paring it with a non-explosive type warhead, the AGM-114 R9 X can strike a car, a door, or a single person on the street, and not affect people, vehicles, or buildings directly next to the target.

An interesting parallel story to this comes form France in 2011 during the civil conflict in Lybia. French ground crews attached laser guidance systems to their 100kg cement ‘dummy’ bombs normally used to practice missions. These weapons were dropped from high altitude and used on Libyan tanks that were deliberately parked near civilian targets such as schools, playgrounds, or hospitals. The resulting missions would see multiple hostile tanks destroyed outright, without any reported collateral damage to people or structures next to the target.  

#Swordsunday is intended as a fun and educational series of posts for the enjoyment of readers. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"