From an AH-64 Apache busting a T-72 tank of Saddam's Republican Guard, to a CIA Predator drone sniping one of Al Qaeda's top lieutenants, the AGM-114 Hellfire missile has become the weapon of choice for the Global War On Terror. Here's it and its replacement in super slow motion.
Soon, smaller weapons that can be carried in great volumes by attack vehicles will take on some of the Hellfire's precision attack mission, and one of these weapons is the Direct Attack Guided Rocket, otherwise known as the DAGR.
It is hard to truly understand how a missile and its high-tech warhead actually work on the battlefield because by their very nature, they fly quickly to their target and explode with brutal force in an instant. That is why slow motion video, like the Lockheed Martin test video below, is so interesting to watch as it tells the story of just how a Hellfire or a DAGR gets the job done, sacrificing itself in the process:
Tyler Rogoway is a defense journalist and photographer who maintains the website Foxtrot Alpha for Jalopnik.com You can reach Tyler with story ideas or direct comments regarding this or any other defense topic via the email address Tyler@Jalopnik.com