Friday, September 3, 2010

New Multi-Purpose HELLFIRE II Missile

New Multi-Purpose HELLFIRE II Missile: "Lockheed Martin's multi-purpose AGM 114R HELLFIRE II missile struck and destroyed a stationary tank target in its third proof-of-principle flight test, a ground-launch test configured to simulate launch from an unmanned aerial system (UAS).
The R model, or "Romeo" missile, features a multi-purpose warhead that enables a single HELLFIRE missile to cover all of the target sets of the currently fielded laser-guided variants.

The missile, armed with a live warhead, was fired at a stationary M60 tank located 6.4 kilometers downrange. Immediately before launch, test equipment emulating an airborne UAS launch platform sent targeting data and warhead delay selection commands for an armored target to the missile.

The missile was launched in lock-on-after-launch mode with a high trajectory to simulate launch from a UAS.
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