Original vintage Cold War-era 1983 Rockwell International Missile Systems Division "Hellfire Scores Again" anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) advertisement
Dimensions: Approx. 8 inches wide by 11.5 inches high.
"HELLFIRE, the U.S. Army's newest anti-armor missile, has been scoring hit after hit from airborne platforms, against a variety of armor and bunker targets. In a recent organizational and operational tactics test conducted by the U.S. Army's 9th Infantry Division, HELLFIRE scored again. This time from a ground-launch vehicle hidden behind a hill...The ground-launch HELLFIRE vehicle offers rapid deployment forces the only direct fire, anti-armor capability that can be air lifted onto the battlefield by Black Hawk helicopters."
The AGM-114 Hellfire Missile
The AGM-114 Hellfire is an American missile developed for anti-armor use, later developed for precision drone strikes against other target types, especially high-value targets. It was originally developed under the name "Heliborne laser, fire-and-forget missile", which led to the colloquial name "Hellfire" ultimately becoming the missile's formal name. It has a multi-mission, multi-target precision-strike ability and can be launched from multiple air, sea, and ground platforms, including the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper.
The Hellfire missile is the primary 100-pound (45 kg) class air-to-ground precision weapon for the armed forces of the United States and many other countries, and it has also been fielded on surface platforms in the surface-to-surface and surface-to-air roles.
The development of the Hellfire Missile System began in 1974 with the United States Army requirement for a "tank-buster," launched from helicopters to defeat armored fighting vehicles. Most variants are laser-guided, with one variant, the AGM-114L "Longbow Hellfire", being radar-guided. Laser guidance can be provided either from the launcher, such as the nose-mounted opto-electronics of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, other airborne target designators or from ground-based observers, the latter two options allowing the launcher to break line of sight with the target and seek cover.
The Hellfire II, developed in the early 1990s is a modular missile system with several variants, and entered service with the U.S. Army in 1996. Hellfire II's semi-active laser variants—AGM-114K high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), AGM-114KII with external blast fragmentation sleeve, AGM-114M (blast fragmentation), and AGM-114N metal augmented charge (MAC)—achieve pinpoint accuracy by homing in on a reflected laser beam aimed at the target.
The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) carry the Hellfire II, but the most common platform is the helicopter gunship, such as the AH-64 Apache or AH-1 Cobra, which can carry up to 16 of them each. The AGM-114L, or Longbow Hellfire, is a fire-and-forget weapon: equipped with millimeter-wave (MMW) active radar homing, it requires no further guidance after launch—even being able to lock on to its target after launch—and can hit its target without the launcher or other friendly unit being in line of sight of the target. It also works in adverse weather and battlefield obscurants, such as smoke and fog, which can mask the position of a target or prevent a designating laser from forming a detectable reflection.
One particular Hellfire variant of note is the so-called “Flying Ginsu” missile; known officially as the Hellfire R-9X, it features a kinetic warhead with pop-out blades instead of explosives, used against specific human targets. Its lethality is due to 100 lb (45 kg) of dense material with six blades flying at high speed, to crush and cut the targeted person. Intended to reduce collateral damage when targeting specific people, it was deployed in secret in 2017 but its existence has been public since 2019.
This variant was used in the killing in 2017 of Abu Khayr al-Masri, a member of Al-Qaeda's leadership, and in 2019 of Jamal Ahmad Mohammad Al Badawi, accused mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing. The weapon has also been used in Syria, and in Afghanistan against a Taliban commander. It was used twice in 2020 against senior al-Qaeda leaders in Syria; in September 2020 US officials estimated that it had been used in combat six times.
Hellfire missiles fired by a Reaper drone were used on 31 July 2022 to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda, who had previously been involved in planning the 9/11 and other attacks on US targets. It was reported that the missile hit him on a balcony, causing minimal collateral damage.
Rockwell International
Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate, involved in aircraft, space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avionics and industrial products. At its peak, Rockwell International was No. 27 on the Fortune 500 list, with assets of over $8 billion, sales of $27 billion and 115,000 employees.
In the 1990s, the company spun off its semiconductor and automotive product lines, selling them off to various companies. In 2001, what remained of Rockwell International was split into two publicly traded companies, Rockwell Automation and Rockwell Collins, ending the run of what had once been a massive and diverse conglomerate. The split was structured so that Rockwell Automation was the legal successor of the old Rockwell International, while Rockwell Collins was the spin-off. In the modern era, Lockheed Martin is the primary manufacturer of the Hellfire ATGM missile.
