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40mm flechette xm1001

113-115 2 inch long 17 grain flechettes. Range up to 100 meters. Supposedly 1 million manufactured at $200.00 each.
 

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just noticed that some of the flechettes are loaded facing the wrong way,is this so they can fit in as many as possible,then I suppose they just fly out all over the place!or did the person who did the section make a mistake.
 
Data on the round says 13 of them are loaded backwards.

In all of the U.S. flechette artillery rounds, 1/2 of the load is backwards. They are belted together with thread like machine gun rounds, alternating one forward and one backwards. The belts are then wrapped around a hollow core, until the wrap is the diameter of the inside bore of the carrier projectile. Each wrap makes up a layer of the projectile, and the layers are stacked one on top another till the projo is filled. The flechettes that are backwards flip forwards when they hit the air stream.
 
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When I worked for GD-OTS we loaded these. Was a pretty fast operation, but if GD was getting $200 a piece they were ripping of the government. There just wasn't that much into them as compared to a 25 ro 30mm HEI
 
kiwieod said:
just noticed that some of the flechettes are loaded facing the wrong way,is this so they can fit in as many as possible,then I suppose they just fly out all over the place!or did the person who did the section make a mistake.
Click to expand...

AFAIK it is not only for dense packing. There's also a ballistic reason: when the rear-faced flechettes flip forward in the air stream, they pushed away (side) other close flying flechettes, increasing the hit pattern area.
 
As I understand the function of this round, when it is fired, the projectile travels downrange for a set distance, then a "seperating charge" blows the flechettes out from the cup that contains them. Anyone have any idea what this charge is, and the weight of same? Thanks, GROG
 
I still say it taps the firing gasses storing them in the chamber in the base, and uses them to break open the projectile, like the gas chamber on the back of a 106mm Recoilless HEAT


Sent from my NSA/FBI tapped iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Looks like WC 231 Ball powder, but no weight given. I have one, reason I ask. Thank you Weberoed Much appreciated. GROG
 
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The pressure of the propellant
gas acting on the valve plate pushes it forward against a spring
and opens the plenum chamber. In addition to the generation of.
this high pressure gas, additional pressure is produced when this
gas ignites 250-500 mg of the WC 231 Ball Propellant expulsion
charge located in the plenum chamber. The pressure of the
combined gases forces the valve plate against the base of the
projectile and propels the pusher cup forward. The pusher cup is
loaded with a quantity of 107 17-grain flechettes.
 
I love that the previously linked pdf lists "Police and Security Actions" as one of the applications!

I'm not sure that I'll laugh at the fat security guard at the music festivals, whilst wondering "what could he possibly do to stop the kids who jump the fence?"
 
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