Why the US just built a new missile that doesn’t explode

For almost two decades, drone strikes have been the hassle-free, war crime tolerant way to sever the heads of any kind of terror cells operating against the United States in the war on terror. There's just one big problem with that: Hellfire missiles make a big boom, and when that boom is misplaced, a lot of people die – innocent people. And that just creates more terrorists. Lockheed-Martin has finally created a weapon designed to minimize civilian casualties while taking out the bad guys with pinpoint accuracy.

Actually, knife-point accuracy.

Imagine this hellfire missile, but instead of explosives, it's filled with pop-out blades.

The Hellfire missile is a staple of drones, helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft throughout the U.S. military arsenal. The laser-guided, tank-busting workhorse is great for use on a conventional battlefield but not so great when used for surgical strikes.

Until now.

The term "surgical strike" gets a whole new meaning with the Hellfire R9X projectile, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, has no explosives, but rather it drops 100 pounds of metal blades into a target, which includes long blades that deploy from the missile's body right before impact. The shards hit with such force that they cut through concrete and sheet metal.

A U.S. airstrike using a Hellfire RX9 to kill al-Qaeda deputy leader Abu Khayr al-Masri in Syria in 2017. Above is the result of the surgical strike.

(New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness)

Also called "The Flying Ginsu" by the people who developed the missile, they say it's the equivalent of dropping an anvil on a terrorist's head, minimizing the damage to people and property in the vicinity of the weapon's detonation. Since the weapon has no explosive effect, it is also sometimes referred to as "the ninja bomb."

So far, the weapon has only been deployed around a half-dozen times, in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia. It was the weapon of choice to kill a number of al-Qaeda operatives, including Jamal al-Badawi, the bomber behind the USS Cole attack in 2000 and it was the back-up plan to kill Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan compound.