Drone Munitions
AGM-114 Hellfire class (MQ-9 employment) vs Brimstone missile class
Hellfire and Brimstone are the two heavy precision missiles Western air arms weigh for armed drones and helicopters. Laser guidance against millimeter-wave fire-and-forget is the doctrinal fork this comparison exposes.
Specification comparison
| Specification | AGM-114 Hellfire class (MQ-9 employment) | Brimstone missile class |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Air-to-surface guided missile | Anti-armor guided missile |
| Mass class | ~45-49 kg by variant | ~50 kg |
| Guidance | Semi-active laser; millimeter-wave (Longbow) variants | Millimeter-wave radar; dual-mode with laser |
| Typical carrier | MQ-9 Reaper, MQ-1C Gray Eagle, attack helicopters | Typhoon, Protector UAS, ground launchers (Ukraine) |
| Role | Persistent precision strike | Anti-armor salvo strike |
| Options | Shaped-charge anti-armor, blast-fragmentation, inert kinetic patterns (public) | Not publicly disclosed |
| Reference basis | Public documentation only | Public documentation only |
| Effect | Not publicly disclosed | Tandem shaped-charge (public) |
Values are reproduced exactly as recorded in the DroneZone systems database. Where a figure is absent from the public record, it is marked “Not publicly disclosed” rather than estimated.