After the NVA or Vietcong are pinned to trees by exploding flechettes, it's pretty hard for them to escape the area before the napalm comes in.
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Plastic cases loaded with small steel darts called flechettes were issued on a limited trial basis during the Vietnam war. Cartridges manufactured by Western Cartridge Company contained twenty flechettes long and weighing each. The flechettes were packed in a plastic cup with granulated white polyethylene to maintain alignment with the bore axis, and supported by a metal disk to prevent penetration of the over-powder wad during acceleration down the bore. Cartridges manufactured by Federal Cartridge Company contained 25 flechettes.
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Tips of the flechettes are exposed in the Federal cartridges, but concealed by a conventional star crimp in Western cartridges. Flechettes had flatter trajectory over longer ranges than spherical buckshot, but combat effectiveness did not justify continued production.
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To overcome this, the fins were twisted slightly, which causes the dart to spin when flying, producing a stable projectile. The SCMITR cartridge was loaded with eight of these flechettes, each weighing about 1 gram. Dispersion was low, with all eight flechettes capable of hitting within a four-metre circle at a range of 150 metres. Retained velocity at 150 metres was 365 m/s, sufficient for the flechettes to penetrate 76 mm of pine or 3 mm of mild steel.
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This simple weapon, patterned after the Gyrojet series of small arms, uses chemical-rocket-propelled flechettes. These flechettes are cone shaped, allowing them to be stacked into tubes. The rifles are little more than launching platforms with triggering mechanisms. Because the cones (which explode on impact) accelerate after being fired from the rifle, they are more deadly at long ranges than short.
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World War I air dropped flechettes, probably French During World War I, flechettes were dropped from aircraft to attack infantry. Two designs of the Lazy Dog bomb. (Top: early forged steel design; Bottom: later lathe-turned steel design) Later the U.S. used Lazy Dog bombs, which are a small, unguided kinetic projectile typically about in length, in diameter, and weighing about . The weapons were designed to be dropped from an aircraft.
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Khita was raised in the Waste and mentored by Titus. She is a skilled archer who uses specialized arrows and flechettes to deal damage and support her allies.
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It is said that the name beehive was given to the munition type due to the noise of the flechettes moving through the air resembling that of a swarm of bees.
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Meanwhile, the Army's Operations Research Office, ORO, had been working on Project NIBLICK, follow-on to SALVO to develop a modern grenade launcher. Interested in the original shotgun-type shells, they recommended development of a dedicated flechette-firing weapon combined with a grenade launcher, the SPIW. The final requirements resulted in an over-under weapon, firing flechettes from one barrel, and grenades from the other. It was to weigh under fully loaded with three grenades and 60 flechettes.
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The saboted flechette was the counterpart of APFSDS in rifle ammunition. A rifle for firing flechettes, the Special Purpose Individual Weapon, was under development for the US Army, but the project was abandoned.
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During the Vietnam War the United States employed 12 gauge combat shotguns using flechette loads. These plastic cased shells were issued on a limited trial basis during the Vietnam war. They were manufactured by Western Cartridge Company contained twenty flechettes long and weighing each. The flechettes were packed in a plastic cup with granulated white polyethylene to maintain alignment with the bore axis, and supported by a metal disk to prevent penetration of the over-powder wad during acceleration down the bore.
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The Russian navy conducted experiments with large-caliber smoothbore naval guns, which were halted by budget cuts. The armour-piercing gun evolution has also shown up in small arms, particularly the now abandoned U.S. Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) program. The ACR "rifles" used smoothbore barrels to fire single or multiple flechettes (tiny darts), rather than bullets, per pull of the trigger, to provide long range, flat trajectory, and armor-piercing abilities. Just like kinetic-energy tank rounds, flechettes are too long and thin to be stabilized by rifling and perform best from a smoothbore barrel.
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World War I air-dropped flechettes, probably French. Lazy Dog munitions had precursors in air-dropped flechettes dating from World War I. Lazy Dogs in their familiar form were descended from projectiles of almost identical design and appearance that were originally developed early in World War II (as early as 1941). The Korean War–era and Vietnam War–era "Lazy Dog" was further developed, tested and deployed into the 1950s and 1960s. Originally an Armament Laboratory program codenamed Lazy Dog, the weapon's development involved Delco Products Corporation, F&F; Mold and Die Works, Inc.
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Although not strictly shrapnel, a 1960s weapons project produced splintex shells for 90 and 106 mm recoilless rifles and 105 mm howitzers where it was called a "beehive" round. Unlike the shrapnel shells’ balls, the splintex shells contained flechettes. The result was the 105 mm M546 APERS-T (anti-personnel-tracer) round, first used in the Vietnam War in 1966. The shell consisted of approximately 8,000 one-half gram flechettes arranged in five tiers, a time fuze, body shearing detonators, a central flash tube, a smokeless propellant charge with a dye marker contained in the base and a tracer element.
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APS amphibious rifle Steyr-Mannlicher ACR rifle Steyr-Mannlicher ACR flechette cartridge The exterior ballistic performance and armor-piercing potential of flechettes have made the development and integration of this class of munition attractive to small-arms manufacturers. A number of attempts have been made to field flechette-firing small arms. Work at Johns Hopkins University in the 1950s led to the development of the direct injection antipersonnel chemical biological agent (DIACBA), where flechettes were grooved, hollow pointed, or otherwise milled to retain a quantity of chemical or biological warfare agent to be delivered through a ballistic wound.Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists May 1975 Vol.
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SCMITR was part of the CAWS (Close Assault Weapon System) program, which investigated ~20 mm smoothbore weapons (basically combat shotguns) designed to be effective to ranges of 150 metres against combatants wearing body armor. Flechettes, with their high sectional density, were ideal for penetrating rigid or soft composite armor, but the wounds caused by the tiny darts were considered insufficient to disable an enemy combatant, as the tiny hole would quickly clot and cause relatively little bleeding. The SCMITR darts had the same sectional density as flechettes, but the wide, flat shape of the SCMITR produced a larger, more disabling wound. Since the SCMITR darts were stamped from sheet metal, they had only two fins, which is not enough to provide stability.
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The APS amphibious rifle, an underwater assault rifle An underwater firearm is a firearm designed for use underwater. They are in the arms inventories of many nations. A common feature of underwater firearms or needleguns is that they fire flechettes or spear-like bolts instead of standard bullets. These may be fired by pressurised gas.
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Because standard bullet ammunition does not work well underwater, a common feature of underwater firearms is that they fire flechettes instead of standard bullets. The barrels of underwater pistols are typically not rifled. Rather, the fired projectile maintains its ballistic trajectory underwater by hydrodynamic effects. The lack of rifling renders these weapons relatively inaccurate when fired out of water.
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These are all- metal projectiles, often resembling nails that have had fletching (rather than nail heads) forged into them. They were used by American forces during the wars in Korea and Vietnam, but treaties have since been enacted to limit their use. Large flechettes are used as kinetic energy penetrators in many gun-fired anti-armour projectiles.
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The flechette rounds were developed under a contract administered by Picatinny Arsenal and let to the Whirlpool Corporation in April 1957. The contract was named the "Beehive Program" referring to the way the flechettes were compartmentalized and stacked, looking like the traditional image of a conical beehive. It was commonly assumed by users in the service that the term referred to a supposed 'buzzing' sound its darts made when flying through the air. The first example was the 105mm howitzer M546 anti-personnel tracer (APERS-T), first fired in combat in 1966 and thereafter used extensively in the Vietnam War. Intended for direct fire against enemy troops, the M546 was direct fired from a near horizontally leveled 105 mm howitzerM546 APERS-T 105-mm and ejected 8000 flechettes during flight by a mechanical time fuze.
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The latter released flechettes, or small darts, giving a "shotgun" effect. These rounds could be used against infantry in the open. The base of the BAT cartridge case was frangible, the reaction gases venting directly backwards through a single large venturi. This was in contrast to the US recoilless designs, which used a frangible sidewall to the cartridge case and multiple venturi.
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A kinetic energy penetrator, an example of a sub-caliber round. A sub-caliber round is a round the diameter of which is significantly smaller than the barrel diameter. An expendable sabot is used to increase the diameter to the full barrel width of the firing gun. Sub-caliber rounds include flechettes, saboted light armor penetrators, and kinetic energy penetrator tank shells.
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During World War II, an infantryman with a rifle at an average engagement distance of under combat stress expended 10,000 rounds for one hit. Consideration to lighter ammunition types and rifle/grenade launcher combinations was given. Flechettes were found to be inaccurate and expelled fiberglass fragments with each round fired. SALVO mainly studied weapons and ammunition as opposed to developing them.
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The eldest son of Tyler Stuart, a warden at Seagate prison, Tom Stuart was an intelligent young man with a bright future ahead of him. When Tyler lost his job after Luke Cage escaped, Tom sought revenge. He obtained a costume and an arsenal from Justin Hammer and became the criminal vigilante Stiletto. Stiletto found Cage and used explosive flechettes to destroy the building he was in.
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This resulted in the development of a dedicated antitank warhead that replaced the steel rod in the practice warhead with a tungsten rod. This new antitank warhead could penetrate a Soviet T-72 main battle tank armour from any attack angle. Further study into this effect led to the WDU-5002/B FAT warhead, Flechette Anti-Tank, containing five tungsten-reinforced steel flechettes that could penetrate a T-72's side and top armour at a distance of .
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The Prowler's various iterations have no superhuman powers, although Hobie Brown is naturally inventive, especially in the field of pneumatics despite no formal education in that science. Each one relies on a suite of technical gimmicks. Prowler wears modified coveralls interwoven with denim and stretch fabric, equipped with gas cartridge bracelets and anklets capable of propelling projectiles at high velocity. Their arsenal of projectiles include steel darts ("flechettes"), gas pellets, small explosives, magnesium flares and cleaning fluid.
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They are designed to penetrate dart boards. Tranquilizer darts are related to the darts for blowguns, but include a hypodermic needle and a hollow reservoir resembling a syringe, which is generally filled with sedatives or other drugs. These are launched from a special gun using compressed gas, a tuft of fibers at the back of the missile serving as both fletching and wadding. A type of dart still finds use in military engagements, in the form of flechettes.
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Just before dying, Lander lights the fuse of the blimp's bomb. With just minutes away from detonation, Kabakov lowers himself from the helicopter to the blimp, and hooks it up with a cable to the helicopter, which hauls it out of the panicked stadium and over the ocean. Kabakov unhooks the cable from the blimp, and clings to the cable as the helicopter moves away to a safe distance. A few seconds later, the bomb detonates, firing the flechettes harmlessly into the water.
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1969 AAI SPIW In 1969, the Army started the Future Rifle Program, and invited AAI to enter against General Electric's Dual Cycle Rifle, a derivative of the Springfield SALVO design. (Springfield had closed in 1968.) Additional entries with multiple flechettes or bullets ("micro-caliber") were also entered, mirroring the original SALVO tests of the 1950s. However, the program came under attack by the United States Congress as a waste of money, and was forced to scale back. Testing finally began in 1974.
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The AIWS shared some features with the Steyr entry, notably the "rising chamber" action and "telescoped" cartridge. McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems, originally Hughes Helicopters, planned to enter their design using a plastic-cased cartridge they called a chiclet due to its box-like profile. Their first loads used duplex or triplex loads of normal projectiles, but the recoil was too high, so these were replaced with flechettes, first with five of them in a round, eventually three in an round.
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Reason is a railgun in a rotary cannon configuration which fires depleted uranium flechettes. It is mounted to a large, wheeled ammunition box and is equipped with a harness for user comfort, a nuclear battery pack, and a water-cooled heat exchanger. The weapon, created by Ng, was still in beta testing, and suffers a software crash during a battle, resulting in the death of its user. Hiro is later able to apply a firmware update, and uses it until its ammunition supply is depleted.
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Israeli army used flechettes against Gaza civilians Amnesty International, January 27, 2009. The army has argued that it has used the weapons very selectively. Use of the munition is not forbidden under international law. Military expert told Goldstone team that there is no proof that Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) rounds were used, but he is of view that some weapons systems used in the conflict had some sort of DIME component, citing evidence of tungsten, iron, and sulfur in samples analyzed in a forensic lab.
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Within minutes thousands of his warriors die under the onslaught and the Boman attempt to retreat across the bridge. Unfortunately for them, Julian's armored squad, which managed to evade them while staying on the other side of the bridge, opens fire into the retreating forces. The tidal wave of flechettes, cannon beads and plasma bolts finally breaks the back of the Boman's morale. Tar Tin, realizing the gross mistake he committed and the massive defeat suffered because it, commits suicide by throwing himself and his ax of office into the Tam River.
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Beehive was a Vietnam war era anti-personnel round packed with metal flechettes fired from an artillery gun most popularly deployed during that conflict. It is also known as flechette rounds or their official designation, antipersonnel-tracer (APERS-T). Typically, artillery gunners fire using indirect fire, firing at targets they cannot see by line of sight with information provided by a forward observer. However, during the Vietnam War, there was a demand for a munition that could be fired directly at enemy troops, in cases where an artillery unit was attacked.
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The most prominent of the synthetic machines are the insect-like gunships; and Striders, armored creatures that walk upon three legs, which are armed with a high powered warpspace cannon and a head-mounted pulse turret. In Episode Two, the Hunter, a smaller equivalent to the Strider, is introduced. These 2.5 m (8 ft) tall, tripodal assault machines fire explosive flechettes at targets and are small enough to maneuver indoors. Other synths are seen near the end of the Half- Life 2, although their roles are not elaborated on.
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The cannon cockers (artillerymen) were > forced to redistribute ammo by crawling from one gun section to another > under a hail of enemy direct fire and spinning shrapnel from the exploding > dump. The crews continued rendering direct fire, even though they were often > embroiled in defending their own weapons. One light howitzer section was > caught in an enemy crossfire between a heavy machine gun and rifles, until > the artillerymen managed to turn their lowered muzzle and pump BEE HIVE > flechettes into the enemy. All enemy automatic weapon fire against the > howitzer was instantly silenced.
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On 23 June, the Belgian Farman F.40 with the ghoulish insignia of a skull painted on the nose scored again, destroying a Fokker. Over the next month, the two Belgians rampaged, claiming two more wins that went unconfirmed, dropping flechettes on a German observation balloon, and strafing the Germans at Ghistelles. On the afternoon and evening of 30 July, Jacquet and Robin clashed with a series of Germans, being credited with an LVG destroyed. Their probable victim was Oberleutnant Franz Walz, who was downed with severe wounds that day.
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A number of prototype flechette-firing weapons were developed as part of the long-running Special Purpose Individual Weapon (SPIW) project. The Steyr-Mannlicher ACR Rifle was a prototype flechette-firing assault rifle built for the US Army's Advanced Combat Rifle program of 1989–90. A variation of the flechette addressing its difficulties is the SCMITR, developed as part of the Close Assault Weapon System, or CAWS, project. Selective-fire shotguns were used to fire flechettes designed to retain the exterior ballistics and penetration of the standard flechette, but increase wounding capacity through a wider wound path.
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Realizing all he needed to do in order to get its full application was to die and restart his damaged brain from scratch.X-Force Vol 4 #12 With the new, perfected iteration of the formula code, Fantomex had access to a slew of customizable superpowers which he could rewire into himself on the fly.X-Force Vol 4 #13 Powers ranging from Techno-Organic razor wings similar to Archangel, able to discharge razor flechettes which spontaneously combust in flight.X-Force Vol 4 #14 To energy blasts, physical augmentation, size alteration, psionic manipulation, concussive blasts, energy shields and advanced regenerative abilities.
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The term "Killer" came from the call-sign of the battery which developed the technique. The technique was later perfected by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Dean, commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, of the 25th Infantry Division Artillery. Killers Junior and Senior were developed as alternatives to the Beehive flechette rounds previously used against nearby enemy troops. The advantage of the Killer techniques over Beehive is that the airburst projects fragments in all directions, and is able to wound enemies crawling or lying in defilade, whereas the flechettes of a Beehive round would simply fly harmlessly over a low target.
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The Sheridan had several advantages: it did not get stuck in the mud as often as the 52-ton M48 Patton tank did, nor did it throw its track off as often.ARMY CONCEPT TEAM IN VIETNAM APO SAN FRANCISCO 96384. Optimum Mix of Armored Vehicles for Use in Stability operations Volume 1. 31 MAR 1971 This alone was enough to win the tank crews' favor. The light weight and high mobility proved their worth, and the gun proved an effective anti-personnel weapon when used with either the M657 HE shell or the M625 canister round, which used thousands of flechettes as projectiles.
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It was also found to be a useful warhead for use against medium and light armoured vehicles."Flechette Anti-Tank Warhead" , Bristol Aerospace, August 2002 Further development led to the WDU-500X/B "General Purpose Flechette" which releases 80 tungsten flechettes that can penetrate 1.5 inches of roll-hardened armor"General Purpose Flechette Warhead for Attack Helicopters" , Bristol Aerospace, November 2001 for use against personnel, some light armour, thin skin vehicles and helicopters. Bristol also re-sells the RA-79 from Raufoss Ammunisjonsfabrikker, a semi-armor-piercing round designed to attack shipping."RA-79 High Explosive Incendiary Semi-Armour Piercing" , April 2002 The CRV-7 Multi-Purpose Sub Munition (MPSM) contained nine M73 submunitions in each rocket.
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They conspire together to launch a suicide attack using a bomb composed of plastique and a quarter-million steel flechettes. They plan to mount the bomb on the underside of the gondola of the Goodyear blimp which traditionally flies over the Super Bowl football game, and detonate it over the Miami Orange Bowl during Super Bowl X, in order to call attention to the plight of the Palestinians and to punish the US for supporting Israel. During a raid on a Black September unit in the Middle East, the Israeli counter-terrorist Mossad agent David Kabakov surprises Iyad while she is bathing. His mission was to kill everyone in the unit; however, seeing her unarmed and naked, he spares her life and turns his attention to clearing the rest of the unit.
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The shell functioned as follows: the time fuze fired, the flash traveled down the flash tube, the shearing detonators fired, and the forward body split into four pieces. The body and first four tiers were dispersed by the projectile's spin, the last tier and visual marker by the powder charge itself. The flechettes spread, mainly due to spin, from the point of burst in an ever-widening cone along the projectile's previous trajectory prior to bursting. The round was complex to make, but is a highly effective anti-personnel weapon -- soldiers reported that after beehive rounds were fired during an overrun attack, many enemy dead had their hands nailed to the wooden stocks of their rifles, and these dead could be dragged to mass graves by the rifle.
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The outbreak of World War I, in which neutral Switzerland did not take part, and an indifference to air power of the part of the Swiss military establishment prevented the purchase of modern airplanes required to build an effective air force. By the end of 1914, the force consisted of only eight men flying privately owned airplanes, and by July 1916, four pilots had been killed in crashes. Swiss aircraft were armed only with carbines and flechettes, ineffective pointed iron spikes that were to be dropped on ground targets. The nominal commander of the Swiss air arm, cavalry captain Theodor Real, resigned his post in November 1916 when the army refrained from using its rudimentary air force to defend Swiss airspace against frequent German intrusions, even after Porrentruy was accidentally bombed by German aircraft on 11 October 1916.
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The Navy became sufficiently interested in the concept to provide him with some development funding from the Office of Naval Research, resulting in a 12 gauge shotgun shell firing 32 flechettes. The Army later added funding as well, and AAI was invited to SALVO. In SALVO testing they were found to be able to penetrate one side of a standard steel helmet at —excellent given their light weight—but the dispersion of the darts was so great as to make them only marginally useful. Further development continued by adapting a Winchester Model 70 rifle with new XM110 5.6×53 mm rounds firing a single dart. The result was a weapon with somewhat less accuracy than the 7.62×51mm NATO rounds, but with equal penetration and a trajectory so flat it could be fired with no sight adjustment out to .
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The combination of length, weight and shape of a projectile determines the twist rate needed to stabilize it - barrels intended for short, large-diameter projectiles like spherical lead balls require a very low twist rate, such as 1 turn in 48 inches (122 cm). Barrels intended for long, small-diameter bullets, such as the ultra-low-drag, 80-grain 0.223 inch bullets (5.2 g, 5.56 mm), use twist rates of 1 turn in 8 inches (20 cm) or faster. In some cases, rifling will have changing twist rates that increase down the length of the barrel, called a gain twist or progressive twist; a twist rate that decreases from breech to muzzle is undesirable, since it cannot reliably stabilize the bullet as it travels down the bore. Extremely long projectiles, such as flechettes, require impractically high twist-rates to be gyroscopically stabilized, and are often stabilized aerodynamically instead.
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While Bolo models generally opted for a "balanced" approach to offensive and defensive capabilities, there were often specialised variations on the base model, such as heavy siege units, scout units and ECM platforms. The additional weaponry thus includes but isn't restricted to: A high-speed auto-cannon which was recurringly referred to as "Infinite Repeaters" (the 'infinite' referring to the fact that the Bolo can create its own ammunition from metals found in the environment, thus not having an ammo count in the true sense of the word), firing systems such as a combination of Gatling guns with mortars similar to the 2S4 Tyulpan; VLS (also for launch of drones etc.); as well as tank guns or railguns similar to battleship secondary armament, which includes additional Hellbores of a smaller caliber. Projectiles include KEP projectiles, DSFSLRP (futuristic APFSDS), other missiles and anti- personnel flechettes. Bolos may carry different types of drones (UAVs, hover- UGVs, even satellites) for maintenance, reconnaissance (sometimes including spy satellites) and providing additional offense.
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