The AGM-114 Hellfire missile was designed to give the United States an advantage against the Soviet military’s massive tank formations. But now the missile is used for a range of purposes, from anti-personnel weapons to bunker busters.
The exquisitely named missile was conceived in 1974 in response to an Army request for a helicopter-launched, fire-and-forget, anti-tank missile. What came out of that program was the AGM-114A Hellfire missile, which followed a laser designator to reach its target. It carried a 17-pound warhead and was deployed worldwide.
As the missile evolved, versions were created that provided better missile guidance, lethality, and safety.
While early models had a limited ability to turn in flight and relied on laser designators, newer models carry radar systems and are more agile. The most nimble variants, the AGM-114R and AGM-114T, can even turn quickly enough to kill enemies behind the aircraft.
New warheads enhance the missile’s lethality against a wide range of targets. The shaped-charge warheads from the original Hellfire have given way to tandem high-explosive warheads to defeat reactive armor.
The metal-augmented charge of the AGM-114N is a thermobaric warhead that fills an enclosed space with a highly reactive metal and then detonates the mixture, creating a massive secondary explosion.
Meanwhile, adaptations to the Hellfire and its launchers enable more platforms to carry it. The Navy now deploys the AGM-114L on ships so they can better protect themselves from attacks by fast boats and other threats.
The Hellfire’s iconic air platform is still the Apache, but it catches rides on AH-1s, drones, Blackhawks, Kiowas, and even modified Cessnas.
Land vehicles employ the missile as well. Lockheed self-funded the development of the Long Range Surveillance and Attack Vehicle, which can fire the Hellfire or the DAGR, a smaller weapon with most of the Hellfire II’s technology. The Hellfire’s finest hours came in the 1991 Persian Gulf War when Army Apaches claimed 500 Iraqi tank kills with the missile. That’s not even counting Hellfire kills achieved by AH-1 Cobras.
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