Got them riding in a mini-van about 10 miles from where Baghdadi was neutralized:

US forces reportedly conducted an airstrike on a minivan in a north-western Syrian city on Tuesday, killing two targets just 10 miles away from where former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid in October.

The targeted strike was said to have involved the use of a secret ‘Ninja’ missile, known as the AGM-114R9X, which substitutes the explosive warhead found on standard missiles for a set of six folding sword-like blades, designed to smash through buildings and vehicles with minimal civilian casualties.







See:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...le-deploys-six-blades-mince-targets.html

Some other towel head got hit with one of those about a year ago, not sure if we or the IDF deployed it.

Just seen your display, it was 2017. Time flies

Kinda gives a new meaning to "Live by the sword. Die by the sword".

Wondering if this was a product of spillover intel they got from the sister.

Slap Chop....lol

So what's the cutting diameter on this 'mechanical broadhead'?

IIRC a crossbow was sometimes used against the Vietcong as a sort of "screw with the enemies heads" kind weapon..... guessing the Jihadists are jumpy now....

It slices, it dices - but wait...there's more

So "slice and dice" returns to its literal meaning. Cool.

Is it lubed with lard?

Oh, no. The liebs would freak out if we made muzzies fear they wouldnt please Allah and get the virgins, although the liebs know there really is no God we dont want them to die unhappy.

We had a different approach awhile back that was probably cheaper.

Still use em DD
going into najaf
Bn had ta skirt around a CBU strike area.
2 ADA guys ( Stinger team) 2/ 44th
Found a CBU that didnt petal out and deploy its wire lines.
For some dumb reason they picked it up and brought it back to their humvee.
We all heard a boom about a click behind us.
Didnt pay it no attention.
Later on we found out they both got killed by it.

1000 ways to die
And being a dumbass is definately one of em...

Seeems a bit uneconomical...
An airstrike on a minivan.
Was the USMC busy?
No snipers available?

Probably cheaper than crashing the whole drone into the minivan, don't ya think?

Yes - busy.
Correct - the snipers were laid up somewhere else at the time.

So, when will one be replicated on "Forged in Fire"?

It will keeeeel.

And some were remarkably effective. Don't know I recall this correctly or not, but the BLU-92 was a tricky devil. Trip wires w/30 day time fuse. Put pressure on the wire, BOOM. Relieve pressure on the wire, BOOM! Stellar way to stop foot traffic on the jungle trails it was. Parts is parts.

And ya, flechettes are fun too.

I knew flechettes were used in Korea but wiki says back to WW1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette

Post this on Archery Talk and someone will argue the Rage is better! lol

I fired a few flechette rockets myself. We weren't supposed to have them or use them, but we weren't supposed to be in Cambodia either!

I have some sample flechettes around here somewhere. Anybody want a few as conversation pieces? Assuming I can find them, that is.

Also used some CBU in 'Nam. Not the time delay kind - and I forget the BLU number - but the baseball-sized ones that went off at impact, 200 or so of them in a bomb case that opened after it was dropped and spread the bomblets over a wide area. The oddest thing: to me orbiting above, it sounded like a long electric-like buzz when they went off. They'd really rip up a truck park and enemy troops.

Edit: Found the flechettes. (Weird the things one hangs onto for 50 years...) PM me to get 10 each.

Love that guy. "This knife will keeeeel"

In recon the point man often carried a thump Gun w/ a flechette round loaded. The 105s used flechettes in direct fire for close in defense, both worked well. A cluster of charging booger eaters getting shredded by a 105 is a site that will make your heart sing.


mike r

Using a missile is probably better than risking the lives of troops [duh] Real time intelligence must be acted on very quickly.


mike r

There's airstrikes and then there's airstrikes. A solo drone firing one missile is an airstrike. So is a four-ship of B-52s loaded wall to wall with 500 lb-ers.

In this instance, a drone operator in an air-conditioned trailer located half a world away saw the minivan in his optics, ID'd it as a bad guy probable, got the kill order in seconds, and squeezed the trigger. Whoosh.

We should launch pigs through the windshield.

I think they were just dropped out of Airplanes by the thousands

This looks fun

What is the advantage of slice n dice over a ‘splosion?

Ability to recover intel?

Minimize collateral damage, mentioned in OP.

People don't respect people that care about CD.