America’s new ‘Ninja’ missile deploys giant knife blades, not explosives

[pipedreams]

"The weapon, which officials have dubbed a “Ninja Bomb,” can even target individuals in cars and inside buildings. The promise: reduced civilian deaths — and a deadly new precision weapon in the military’s arsenal.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the CIA and the Pentagon have developed a top-secret missile designed to assassinate a single terrorist by crushing them or slicing them up with sword-like protrusions instead of exploding."

http://kevinwhiteman.com/americas-new-ninja-missile-deploys-giant-knife-blades-not-explosives-likened-to-a-giant-anvil-with-swords-falling-from-the-sky/

https://futurism.com/cia-pentagon-weapon-hellfire-r9x/

[Borg warner]

From the Business insider:

The US has developed a secret weapon designed to eliminate terrorists without injuring/killing nearby civilians, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.  The R9X missile is a modified Hellfire used by the Pentagon and the CIA for pinpoint strikes. If the sheer force of the missile fails to take out the target, the six long blades will finish the task. The missile, known as "The Flying Ginsu" and "The Ninja Bomb," has been used in operations in at least five countries.

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The US has developed a secret missile to kill terrorists in precision strikes without harming civilians nearby, and it's already proven its worth in the field, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing over a dozen current and former US officials.

The R9X is a modified version of the Hellfire missile. Instead of exploding, the weapon uses sheer force to kill its target. "To the targeted person, it is as if a speeding anvil fell from the sky," the WSJ wrote.

What makes the weapon especially deadly is that it carries six long blades that extend outward just before impact, shredding anything in its path. The R9X is nicknamed "The Flying Ginsu," a reference to a type of high-quality chef's knife.

The missile, which can tear through cars and buildings, is also called "the Ninja Bomb."

Development reportedly began in 2011 as an attempt to reduce civilian casualties in the war on terror, especially as extremists regularly used non-combatants as human shields. A conventional missile like the Hellfire explodes, creating a deadly blast radius and turning objects into lethal shrapnel. That's why it's suitable for destroying vehicles or killing a number of enemy combatants who are in close proximity, while the R9X is best for targeting individuals.

The weapon is "for the express purpose of reducing civilian casualties," one official told reporters.

The US military has used the weapon only a few times, officials told The WSJ, revealing that this missile has been used in operations in Libya, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen. For example, the RX9 was used to kill Jamal al-Badawi, accused of masterminding the US Cole bombing in 2000, in January.

While the Obama administration emphasized the need to reduce civilian casualties, the Trump administration appears to have made this less of a priority. In March, President Trump rolled back an Obama-era transparency initiative that required public reports on the number of civilians killed in drone strikes.

Officials told the WSJ that highlighting the new missile's existence, something they argue should have been done a long time ago, shows that the US is committed to reducing civilian casualties.

And from the Wall street Journal:

According to the Journal's sources, the DOD has only used the R9X about six times. The Journal confirmed two strikes—one, in January of 2019 by the Air Force against Jamal al-Badawi, the individual accused of being the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole (a strike that the Pentagon has officially acknowledged, but without disclosing the weapons used); and a CIA strike against Al Qaeda leader Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri in February of 2017. In both cases, the strikes took out the targets but did not blow up the vehicles they were in—in the case of the attack on al-Masri, there was only a hole in the roof of his Kia and a crack in the windshield.

[Paul53]

Wow! A missile that deploys blades to kill a single terrorist without hurting the innocent. Ever hear of cinder blocks?

[janice6]

2 hours ago, Paul53 said:

Wow! A missile that deploys blades to kill a single terrorist without hurting the innocent. Ever hear of cinder blocks?

I would wager that a cinder block with guidance would cost as much.

[willie-pete]

The slice and dice is a nice option touch.

 

I don’t mind paying for that.

[tadbart]

I thought it was fear-inspiring that we had missiles that could hit a moving car. That we have missiles that can cut into said car, and kill the driver, and possibly leave the rear passenger as a witness, is fkin scary as hell. This elevates the game.

[Paul53]

I worry that the more complicated the technology the more likely a malfunction. If they make this stuff with confidence in it, I'm good with that.

[Mike]

Why do I feel the sudden need to start telling the muslims that have infested the area that the blades are dipped in pigs blood prior to being installed into the missile?

[willie-pete]

How would you like to find this

 

In the front seat with you?

 

 

 

[Moshe]

If this is declassified, it means there are worse things out there now.

[willie-pete]

14 minutes ago, Moshe said:

If this is declassified, it means there are worse things out there now.

Yep, if that is what they will admit to.  What is there out there that they won’t admit to.

 

 

 

OTOH, this is pretty bad-ass.

 

[Moshe]

Someone who likes knives came up with this one.  I am dubious it was the CIA though.  

[Al Czervik]

"The R9X is nicknamed "The Flying Ginsu," a reference to a type of high-quality chef's knife."

 

???

 

I don't know about that, but it slices, it dices, splits wood, and can still slice this tomato.  But wait, there's more.

[janice6]

I suspect that any Engineer that works with guided munitions would think that, since there is a margin of error to any device, the simplest means to increase the potential for zeroing in on a small target, would be to incorporate some "things" the extend upon impact.  The simplest additions are those which can be retracted during flight and then extended on impact to ensure coverage that extends to cover the margin of error.

Considering the above criteria, there is little else that comes to mind other than some structural extensions like "fins" that can pop out of the body and increase the frontal area of the weapon.  Because of this, I really don't believe that anyone specifically called for "knives" to be a part of the weapon.  Just that by examination of the above criteria for the design, extended fins fit the bill nicely.

[NPTim]

About the most unnecessary thing I’ve heard of. It probably cost half a million to a million dollars EACH. Without the blades it would have the same effect.

 

we had a member here describe the effects of a training, I believe it was a mortar round, on a cow. A laser guided, or self guided 100# weight would mess up whom so ever was under it when it landed, without spall or much in the way of collateral damage. Military industrial complex at your cervix.

[Moshe]

If you have enough satellites in orbit, it could be reduced to a high power laser from outside the atmosphere.  Essentially fire from the sky.  That would be rather pin point.

[janice6]

13 minutes ago, Moshe said:

If you have enough satellites in orbit, it could be reduced to a high power laser from outside the atmosphere.  Essentially fire from the sky.  That would be rather pin point.

A problem is with the power for the laser.  It would take considerable time to accumulate enough energy due to solar power.  It would be unable to cycle fast enough to give a second chance. 

Also, the wavelength to minimize loss through the water vapor, particulates and molecules in the atmosphere would produce significant scattering of the beam and  limit you to a wavelength that was optimum for minimum loss through the atmosphere but not optimum for absorption in the steel sheet metal of the target. 

In addition, the laser would have to be targeted to the potentially moving object for some period of time to accumulate enough heating to cause damage.  This is a significant tracking problem, since the margin of error would have to be very small so the beam would stay on one spot of the target for some time.  

There are other problems, but I just listed the few that come to mind.

Edited June 6, 2019 by janice6

[jfost11]

Let's get some marketing on that thing

Edited June 6, 2019 by jfost11