Flechettes

[US-Subs]

I'd put this under submunitions, but, as the discrimination continues, we will have to make do with Other, as instructed (all in good humor).

Since one of the earlier posts strayed into flechette territory, I wanted to take just a moment to share some photos. Flechettes are another area of military ordnance that is greatly misunderstood, and where the stories sometimes takes on a greater profile than the truth, mostly because there is so little open information.

Flechettes have been used or experimented with in large caliber projos and small arms, from below .22 to 8-inch, as well as rocket warheads and special devices. They have b loaded into delivery systems by many NATO countries and Warsaw Pact as well. Typically resembling finned finishing nails, they came in a great variety of sizes, and some were drilled hollow and loaded with explosives, incendiaries and toxic substances for various "special" programs.

Picatinny Arsenal used to have a great museum open to the public (now long gone). Picatinny was responsible for much of the development of the flechettes, and they had dozens of great displays that allowed the history to be viewed and at least the artillery aspects to be better understood.

I've attached just a few photos of the Picatinny displays, enjoy.

 

[Freaky]

Thanks for displaying

Cheers
Freaky

 

[pzgr40]

Hi J,
That's nice stuff. These shells were called "beehive shells"" if I am not wrong?
Regards DJH

 

[US-Subs]

That was one of the terms used, mostly by the using units. APERS was another.

 

[HAZORD]

Jeff,

Nice photos. The Whirlpool board is great! All that and washing machines too! Hey, how were the sectioned rounds done, so that the flechettes didn't fall out? Did they dose them with super glue, or soak in some other type of adhesive?

I would add to what Jeff has said about Flechette rounds:

There were standard rounds for 57mm recoilless, 81mm Mortar direct fire, 90mm recoilless, 90mm tank gun, and 152mm Gun/launcher that were tin cans filled with flechettes and no fuze. They would disperse directly from the gun barrel like a shotgun.

There were also rounds for 90mm tank gun, 105mm tank gun, 105 howitzer, and 106mm recoilless rifles that had nose fuzes. Instead of reading in fractions of a second, the fuzes read in meters. Most have a push button that lets the user select the range that they want the projo to travel before the fuze fuctions and opens the projo up. The push button is engaged, and the operator twists the timing ring till he reads the correct distance, and he lets up on the push button, which snaps and locks the fuze at that time/distance.

Lastly, more common rounds also included a flechette warhead for 2.75 inch rockets during the Vietnam war, which would disperse the flechettes from the warhead once it got up to speed. There is currently a 2.75 Hydra flechette warhead for use in the Apache longbow helicopters. It uses flechettes in the 200 grain range, and is designed for shooting down other helicopters. I has an electronically programmed fuze to control when the flechettes are ejected.

 

[pzgr40]

I have also made cutaway models for the MTM Dawn museum of Russian 122 and 152mm beehive shells.
The name beehive is derived from the sound of the flechettes after leaving the carrier shell, like a "heeve of bees" flying all out together

 

[HAZORD]

DJ,

Do you have any photos of the Russian 122 and 152mm Beehive rounds?

 

[navyman]

Has anyone information on the WW1 flechette's being dropped from early aircraft, or is this just another story?
Cheers,
navyman.

 

[US-Subs]

There are about 20 varieties, mostly found in European collections. I'll see if I can dig up some photos tonight.

 

[HAZORD]

It is a true story. There were various shapes of darts, some three to 4 inches long that were thrown from planes. I have a couple I will photo tomorrow.

 

[BOMBSaway1980]

Well if your looking for air dropped Flechettes Check out the CBU-107 Passive Attack Weapon.

 

[US-Subs]

Here are a couple of examples, the typical ones were as seen, a straight cut piece of rod, about the size of a pencil and heavy enough to do damage from the fall alone. A number of fin designs were used, and eventually larger incendiary filled versions were tried.

The idea was revised for WWII and brought back by the US in the Lazy Dog, another kinetic energy dart which was packaged a hundred or so in a paper sack, the sacks were then loaded into a dispenser. The Lazy Dog variations I've found so far are in the fifth photo. Toxic versions were also tried by other countries in WWII.

As Bombs mentions, everything old is new again. The US has once again brought back the kinetic energy dart, but its fairly new and good open source photos are still pretty hard to find.

 

[TimG]

Jeff,

In the first couple of photos the flechettes are shown packed 'head to tail'. Obviously, after ejection, those initially facing the wrong way should correctly orientate themselves. Do you know how effective this was and what effect it had upon performance?

Thanks

TimG

 

[US-Subs]

Considering the release velocity, I don't think they had much trouble orienting themselves. If you look closely at the photo/x-ray of the projectile that is opening (the first part of the post), you will see that nearly all appear to be facing forward, and less than half have deployed.

At the same time I have played with some of the popular flechette shotgun loads that can be purchased - after firing into wood and clay a significant percentage were found to be imbedded tail first or sideways, at a variety of ranges. This could be due to insufficient velocity or poor packing/quality control, but its interesting.

 

[pzgr40]

"Do you have any photos of the Russian 122 and 152mm Beehive rounds?"

To my regret not, but I know for fact the Russians used to cast the flechettes in the shellbody at random, than poured stearine fat (the stuff you make candles from) over it to change it into one pack. After release , the stearine fat is thrown off due to the sudden release into the airstream.
Next time I go to the MTM I'll take some pictures.

 

[Weasel]

Hi US Subs,
Thanks for starting a fascinating thread even if it does not have it's own section. The idea of these seems to be as old as the hills but still being played with in one form or another, i have a French WW1 Flechette in my collection but thats it, the picture you posted of the round expeling its load of flechettes is amazing, just one of those rounds would cover quite an area i would imagine.
Best regards Weasel.

 

[SG500]

Very nice US subs - thanks for showing them.
Dave.

 

[V40]

Out of all of my favorite devices for launching "Pins with Fins" has to be the 2.75 inch rocket used on gunships (helicopters), SPAD"s, and fighter/fighter bombers. The rocket itself would fly a certain distance then the warhead would be blown open by a charge in the base of the warhead there by releasing the flechete rounds. Orange carpenter's chalk would appear during this time to let the pilot know that his rockets had successfuly launched the flechetes from the rocket. JUST FYI

 

[poltewerke]

W.W.1 F's Long nails.

Has anyone information on the WW1 flechette's being dropped from early aircraft, or is this just another story?
Cheers,
navyman.

Hi, have two types here somewhere - if required will photo and post image. Cheers, RonB.

 

[US-Subs]

Out of all of my favorite devices for launching "Pins with Fins" has to be the 2.75 inch rocket used on gunships (helicopters), SPAD"s, and fighter/fighter bombers. The rocket itself would fly a certain distance then the warhead would be blown open by a charge in the base of the warhead there by releasing the flechete rounds. Orange carpenter's chalk would appear during this time to let the pilot know that his rockets had successfuly launched the flechetes from the rocket. JUST FYI

One point to note - as I recall (we're talking a long time ago here) the red-orange dye packs in the 2.75-inch were much more than carpenter's chalk. Like so many other things from the 60's-70's, the early versions of the dye packs (at least) were later identified as highly carcinogenic. In the early 80's we had specific warnings in the TM60 series (EOD bookset) to the hazard and we were instructed to go around to training areas and ensure that all dyepacks had been pulled from otherwise inert rockets on the training shelves. Unfortunately many had the packs ruptured, coating all the flechettes in orange dye. I believe the dyepacks were eventually brought back in a less hazardous form, but cannot reference that.