Американская противотанковая ракета AGM-114 Hellfire

American air to surface missile

The AGM 114 Hellfire is an American air to surface missile (ASM) first 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 class air to ground precision weapon for the armed forces of the United States and many other nations. It has also been fielded on surface platforms in the surface to surface and surface to air roles.

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 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. 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 AH 1Z Viper helicopter gunship, which can carry up to 16 of them. 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. Each Hellfire weighs , including the warhead, and has a range of depending on trajectory. The Hellfire has a Circular Error Probable (CEP) of less than 3 feet (1 m). The AGM 114R "Romeo" Hellfire II entered service in late 2012. It uses a semi active laser homing guidance system and a K charge multipurpose warhead to engage targets that formerly needed multiple Hellfire variants. It will replace AGM 114K, M, N, and P variants in U. S. service. In October 2012, the U. S. ordered 24,000 Hellfire II missiles, for both the U. S. armed forces and foreign customers. A possible new JCM successor called the Joint Air to Ground Missile (JAGM) is under consideration. Due to budget reductions, JAGM development was separated into increments, with increment 1 focusing on adding a millimeter wave radar to the Hellfire R to give it a dual mode seeker, enabling it to track moving targets in bad weather.

In 2009, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) acknowledged that Army Air Corps (AAC) AgustaWestland Apaches had used AGM 114N Hellfire missiles against Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The MoD stated that 20 missiles were used in 2008 and a further 20 in 2009. In the British Parliament, Liberal Democrat politician Nick Harvey argued that the "Parliament must be reassured these are a weapon of last resort." AGM 114 Hellfire missiles were used to kill Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in 2004, and by the US military to kill American born Islamic cleric Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen in 2011, Al Qaeda operative Abu Yahya al Libi in Pakistan in 2012, al Shabaab militant Mukhtar Abu Zubair in Somalia in 2014, and British ISIL executioner Mohammed Emwazi (also known as "Jihadi John") in Syria in 2015. They were also used in the assassination of Qasem Soleimani as well as the killing of Ayman al Zawahiri. The AGM 114 has occasionally been used as an air to air missile. The first operational air to air kill with a Hellfire took place on 24 May 2001, after a civilian Cessna 152 aircraft entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, with unknown intentions and refusing to answer or comply with ATC repeated warnings to turn back. An Israeli Air Force AH 64A Apache helicopter fired on the Cessna, resulting in its complete disintegration. The second operational air to air kill with a Hellfire occurred on 10 February 2018, after an Iranian UAV entered Israeli airspace from Syria. An Israeli Air Force AH 64 launched a Hellfire missile at the UAV, successfully destroying it. In January 2016 The Wall Street Journal reported that one training missile without a warhead was accidentally shipped to Cuba in 2014 after a training mission in Europe; it was later returned. A US official said that this was an inert "dummy" version of the Lockheed system stripped of its warhead, fuse, guidance equipment and motor, known as a "Captive Air Training Missile".