“When the United States asked the RAF to join air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), Pentagon commanders had one particular weapon they wanted the British to bring.
American defence chiefs had already seen the formidable Brimstone missile at work in Libya during the 2011 campaign against Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and wanted to use it against Isil, according to Whitehall sources.
The unique British-made missile is now the most sophisticated of its kind being used in the air campaign to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling the militants.
Defence sources said the missile’s precise dual-mode guidance system is more sophisticated than that used in the American Hellfire missile and makes it the perfect weapon for destroying moving Isil gun trucks, while minimising death among bystanders.
One RAF source said: “It’s got a very small warhead. You can take out very small targets with limited fragmentation spreading around. “In Afghanistan, we took out people standing in doorways, while those standing nearby were unharmed apart from a bit of dust.”
Ben Goodlad, senior weapons analyst at IHS Jane’s, said the Brimstone missile was the only one being used against Isil that could be either laser-guided onto the target by a weapons operator, or direct itself with radar guidance. He said:
“Brimstone is the only weapon currently being used in air strikes that provides a fire and forget capability capable of hitting moving targets. Weapons equipped with GPS guidance have been used to provide this capability against static targets but GPS cannot be used against anything mobile.”
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