Call it a weapon of minimal destruction.
The device used in the recent strike that killed a Kataib Hezbollah leader is a six-bladed missile designed to kill a target with minimal civilian casualties, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Abu Baqir al-Saadi, who the Pentagon said helped plan attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East, was killed on Feb. 7 when the vehicle he was riding in was struck in Baghdad, according to Reuters.
The Journal said the work was done by a modified Hellfire missile known as “the flying Ginsu” after knives sold on TV in the 1970s.
the flying ginsu is so damn cool, literal ninja bomb https://t.co/AGj0WG9Ajd
— Lily the Jared Polis Stan (@Lily_PolisStan) February 8, 2024
The missile, which carries the official name of R9X, was designed to kill individuals in confined spaces such as a vehicle weapon.
The weapon has been used before in the Middle East in target attacks where the goal was to kill an individual with limited collateral damage.
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Although U.S. officials would not confirm the weapon was used, the Journal noted that had a traditional Hellfire missile been used, instead of burning wreckage after the strike, the vehicle would have been destroyed.
The concept behind the weapon is that it crashes its way through the top of a car, or the wall of a building, with knives that eject out of its nose when impact takes place.
Weapon CIA used to get al-Zawahiri. Kinetic Hellfire R9X. No warhead explosives, just blades that swing out to kill only one guy. pic.twitter.com/0dwkC40003
— Jay Hancock (@jayhancock1) August 2, 2022
The Journal said the weapon was used when al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in July 2022 and against the Islamic State group in Afghanistan in response to that attack that killed 13 Americans during the evacuation of Kabul in 2021.
In June 2020, Qassam al-Urduni of Jordan and Bilal al-Sanaani of Yemen — leaders of the al-Qaida-linked Horas al-Din — were thought to be victims of the flying Ginsu based on the limited wreckage of the strike, according to Fox News.
“The Hellfire R9X missile is a modified version of the Hellfire anti-tank missile, the likes of which have been featured on American drones like the Reaper and Predator. The reference to knives is no accident, as it features multiple steel blades that emerge from the missile moments before impact,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the outlet.
“The result is a much smaller kill radius, which can limit the damage caused by the missile to the intended target area. Such a feature is increasingly needed for counterterrorism campaigns, where the fighting is closer-in, and the environment around the target is more dense and likely to be filled with non-combatants,” he said.
According to an analysis by The Drive’s The War Zone, the R9X has a kill zone of about 40 inches from its body.
ABC News explained the mechanics of a drone strike.
“After being released in the air from an MQ-9’s wings, the motor aboard the missile is fired to guide the missile towards the target being marked by a laser aboard the drone and controlled from ground,” it said in an August 2022 report.
“The combined speed of the drone’s motor and gravity means that by the time the missile reaches its target, it is traveling at the speed of sound, giving little time for a target to try and evade the missile,” the report said.
