Photos of the aftermath of the strike on\u00a0al-Uzbeki’s vehicle show a relatively intact car rather than a fiery wreck, suggesting that, as with\u00a0similar strikes<\/a>\u00a0in the region, the coalition employed the notorious\u00a0R9X variant of the AGM-114 Hellfire missile,\u00a0a non-explosive weapon that can best be described as a 100-pound flying switchblade.<\/p>\n First publicized<\/a> by the Wall Street Journal in 2019 and colloquially known as the “flying Ginsu” or “ninja bomb,” the R9X forgoes an explosive payload in favor of a kinetic warhead containing a halo of blades that deploy moments before impact, eviscerating a target and, ostensibly, reducing the potential civilian casualties that might otherwise accompany a large explosion from a traditional warhead.<\/p>\n Developed in a collaboration between the Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency, the R9X Hellfire variant technically a secret. However, the distinctive effects of the munition have become increasingly recognizable since the U.S. government reportedly started deploying it downrange in 2017.<\/p>\n Indeed,\u00a0the impact patterns on al-Uzbeki’s vehicle appear to match those on the car belonging to Qassam al-Urduni and Bilal al-Sanaani, two leaders of Hurras Al-Din who were killed in a similar drone strike in June<\/a>\u00a0of this year in northwestern Syria.<\/p>\n That same pattern also appeared on the vehicles of\u00a0Abu Ahmed al-Jaziri, a foreign fighter for al Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who was killed in a drone strike<\/a> in December 2019, and\u00a0Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri, the al Qaeda second-in-command who, according<\/a> to the Wall Street Journal, the CIA allegedly killed in in February 2017.<\/p>\n While all three of those strikes, like the\u00a0al-Uzbeki one,\u00a0took place\u00a0in Syria’s Idlib province, the weapon has also been deployed in Yemen in recent years, according<\/a> to the Wall Street Journal. And according<\/a> to The War Zone, photos<\/a> from the aftermath of a January 2019 airstrike against a suspected Taliban commander in Afghanistan suggest the use of the missile there as well.<\/p>\n It’s unclear how many R9X missiles the Pentagon has in its arsenal: the Army and Air Force’s fiscal year 2021 budget requests for missile procurement make no<\/a> mention<\/a> of this specific Hellfire variant, although the Air Force’s budget request does note that multiple variants “may be procured based upon operational requirements for various warheads and the enhanced weapon engagement zone.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/cohete.jpg\")