US to deploy deadlier 'Hellfire Romeo' precision-strike missiles in war against terrorism
The United States will soon be deploying a deadlier version of a precision-strike missile that has been a star of the war on al Qaeda and its allies, according to media reports.
The new version of the Hellfire missile is more powerful and can be used against a wider variety of targets, The Nation reports.
The cylindrical, 49-kilogram missile, known as Hellfire II, has been the weapon of choice on remotely piloted aircraft such as the General Atomics MQ-1A Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper.
These drones have been hunting US foes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistani tribal areas, the report said.
Among the recent targets of the Central Intelligence Agency-operated drone strikes was Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born miltant cleric who was a key leader of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He was killed in northern Yemen on September 30 in a drone attack.
Now an even more lethal version of the missile is close to being fielded, the report said, adding that it wraps all of the killer applications of previous Hellfire II models into a single warhead for greater operational flexibility, according to its maker, Lockheed Martin Corp.
"One missile for many missions," said a promotional sheet next to a Lockheed missile mock-up at an annual meeting and arms bazaar of the Association of the United States Army, held in Washington.
The new missile- designated AGM-114R, or Hellfire Romeo- is tipped with a 'multi-purpose' warhead behind its domed nose, and designed to knock out 'hard, soft and enclosed targets' with a single Hellfire missile load, says Lockheed, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by sales.
The 'R' version's warhead combines the shaped-charge anti-armour capability of the initial anti-tank version with the enhanced effects of fragmentation, blast fragmentation and heat blast overpressure built into later models, the report said.
"This means that it can be used against a far greater range of targets," Gareth Jennings, managing editor at Jane's Missiles and Rockets, an authoritative yearbook, was quoted as saying.
"Before you would have to employ a specific missile-type to take out a particular kind of target - tank, truck, foot soldier. This allows the aircraft to engage 'targets of opportunity' as they appear on the battlefield," he added.
The new version also will be able to be fired at 'off-bore' targets for the first time, meaning the aircraft or helicopter doesn't have to be pointing at the target to acquire it, Jennings said.
Hellfire, a loose acronym for Heliborne, Laser, Fire and Forget, is the primary air-to-ground missile system for the US armed forces, the CIA's paramilitary capabilities and many allied nations.
Source: North America News.Net
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