Flechettes

Pellets, slugs or flechettes made of U have very good powers of penetration. However, U is softer than steel so that in the process of penetrating an armored steel plate it is partially pulverized. Since in this form U is pyrophoric (self-igniting), such projectiles have an incendiary as well as a penetrating effect. According to one account of flechettes made of depleted U ... 

Maj Hobart further states that after 400 years of oblivion, the finned projectile has been reintroduced in the US in the flechette (qv). In the early I960 s this round was found to offer very considerable advantages... 

Accdg to Maj Hobart (Ref 3, p 315), for a long-range weapon the spun projectile is superior to the fin-stabilized such as the "flechette , while for ranges up to 400 meters,... 

More discussion on this subject is given under 1 Flechette ... 

Flechette (US) or Aerial Dart. A small fin-stabilized missile (See Fin Stabilization and Spin Stabilization in this Vol), a large number of which can be loaded in an artillery canister consisting of a light sheet metal casing, designed to be fired from a rifled gun. 

Ihc flechette projectile, shown here as Fig FI7, was developed in the USA in the early... 

To get the center of mass well forward in a flechette of the shape shown in Figure 2, it is obviously necessary to have a long... 

Due to its long, thin shape, there is a lack of rigidity, and the flechette turns into a hook on impact with the target. It becomes totally unstable and imparts its full kinetic energy to die target, producing an explosive-type wound... 

For a long-range weapon, therefore, the greater mass of the spun projectile is superior to die flechette... 

Salvo Squeezebore was overshadowed by the SPIW Flechette (qv) program, and was eventually replaced by it... 

Fig 1 Typical Piston Primed Single Flechette Cartridge (from Ref 2)... 

To reduce weapon wt and achieve simplicity in what are weapons with exceptionally high cyclic rates of fire, some flechette cartridges are piston primed. In such cartridges the primer... 

The flechettes themselves are usually made of steel, but other materials have also been used. 

A particular aim has been to use a metal with as high a density as possible, and bi-metal flechettes have also been used, where the front portion has been of the heavier metal, leaving the tail light, and the center of gravity far forward... 

XM.645 5.6mm single flechette. Belted, rimless, bottlenecked case with piston primer. Case length 57mm. Overall length 62.5mm. This cartridge will be found with Canadian arsenal head-stamps... 

---