Hellfire II Romeo completes proof-of-principle flight tests

The US army Joint Attack Munition Systems (JAMS) Project Office and Lockheed Martin recently fired the multipurpose AGM114R hellfire II Romeo missile with a live warhead and penetrated a brick-over-block target in its sixth proofof-principle (POP) test.

The flight test, at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, demonstrated Romeo’s enhanced software capability and superior performance in a military-operations-in-urban-terrain scenario. The new Romeo’s multipurpose warhead design enables the missile, with a designator spot laser, to seek out and defeat hard, soft and enclosed targets with outstanding success. The initial fielding of the hellfire II Romeo is scheduled for late 2012.

Engineers ground-launched the single hellfire II Romeo missile in a lock-on-afterlaunch mode, simulating the missile being fired from a rotary-wing platform. The short-range (2.5 kilometre) high-speed impact shot penetrated the brick-over-block target and successfully detonated with the specified fuze delay.

This was the final POP test for this nextgeneration precision missile. The Romeo’s advanced fuze technology and new warhead design performed flawlessly in test flights, proving reduced risk through system performance. Additionally, Lockheed Martin’s joint-air-to-ground missile (JAGM) incorporates the same warhead technology and fuze design that is present in the hellfire II Romeo.