It appears that the AGM-114R9X, a secret low collateral damage derivative of the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, has been employed against occupants of another vehicle in northwestern Syria. This is the second time this week. Previously, we knew of only one other instance in which the unique missile had been used, back in 2017 when an Al Qaeda kingpin was similarly targeted and killed in western Syria. The War Zone was the first to posit that an exotic new low-collateral damage weapon was being used after images from that strike surfaced.

There are no confirmed reports as to who was targeted in this latest strike, which occurred near the town of Afrin in Aleppo Governorate, although there are some unconfirmed claims. Supposedly, three people were killed in the vehicle when the bladed weapon smashed through the roof of the vehicle. The post-strike video below is very gruesome. You have been warned:

We followed up our report on a similar strike earlier this week in which an AGM-119R9X was used with a photo of the missile's blade-wielding metallic core that survived the impact with the vehicle (see below). It provided great insight into how the weapon actually works, which confirmed our suspicions. Read our complete analysis here.

Public Domain Basically what replaces the high explosive warhead of the standard AGM-114 Hellfire on the AGM-114R9X is a metal core hub with six blades that swing out around it, pummelling and shredding anything in its path.

It's not clear what has caused what seems like a sudden uptick in the use of this highly unique weapon, but it appears that it is becoming the weapon of choice for targeted assassinations by the U.S. in Northern Syria. Still, one thing remains unclear about this missile system—its guidance system. Most variants of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles use semi-active laser guidance where the seeker on the missile homes in on a laser spot being emitted from an aircraft overhead or by operatives on the ground. It is highly accurate for a weapon that is packed with high explosives. But in the case of the AGM-119R9X, which has no area blast effects at all, it has hit all three targets we have evidence of perfectly in the exact same spot and angle. This begs the question, does this weapon have man-in-the-loop guidance in which a person literally flies the missile into a precise point on the target via command data-link?

USAF MQ-9 carrying Hellfires and GBU-12s.