The CIA built a targeted ‘knife bomb’ to limit civilian casualties while killing terrorists
In an effort to limit civilian casualties, the CIA has apparently decided that knives are better than explosions.
To that end, the American intelligence agency has built a targeted ‘knife bomb’ that fires out blades rather than exploding on impact.
This new kind of weapon hasn’t been publicly acknowledged before but it’s called the R9X and is a modified Hellfire missile. It contains six long blades that are all ejected the moment before impact.
Anonymous sources from the US military told the Wall Street Journal that the R9X is nicknamed the ‘flying Ginsu’ and doesn’t carry a warhead. The goal is to try and reduce civilian casualties that may get caught up in the explosion of a traditional bomb.
The R9X can be targeted on an individual and deployed from a drone. It’s existence has been speculated on but never before confirmed. According to the WSJ, it’s been deployed around the world a half dozen times.
#pt: The R9X, or "flying Ginsu," is said to have been used only twice, globally.
One of those times was on Feb 26, 2017, when it killed al-Qaeda deputy leader Abu Al-Khayr al-Masri in #Idlib, #Syria.
See the image I tweeted from the scene, that day:https://t.co/bSeJIpm54K
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) May 9, 2019
It was initially given the go-ahead by Barack Obama’s administration and has been in development since 2011.
According to war reporters, the deputy leader of Al Qaeda, Abu Khayr al-Masri, was killed in Syria with an R9X. He was riding in a Kia sedan that, when recovered, was remarkably intact given that it had just been hit dead-on with a missile.
Multiple reports that a drone strike in Idlib killed Abu Khayr al-Masri, deputy leader of Al-Qaeda (second in command to Ayman al-Zawahiri). pic.twitter.com/JKmJ1ClCE8
— Tobias Schneider (@tobiaschneider) February 26, 2017
The roof was shredded and al-Masri, an Egyptian national, was killed with ‘no real sign of a large explosion’, according to journalists on the scene.
Actual numbers regarding the number of R9X rockets that have been developed and deployed remain shrouded in secrecy by the US Department of Defence.