Flechettes: The Darts of War

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Flechettes (French for "small arrows") are fin-stabilized projectiles originally developed in the 1910s to be dropped from aircraft, but which have since been adapted to a variety of weapons systems, from artillery shells and air-launched rockets to shotguns and infantry rifles. In this video, we look at a Vietnam War-era "Lazy Dog" antipersonnel flechette and a pair of tungsten armour-piercing flechettes from a CRV7 unguided rocket and discuss the long and fascinating history of this unusual weapon.
SOURCES:
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www.awm.gov.au...
www.amnestyusa...
www.washington...
www.cbc.ca/new...

[@ADRIAAN1007]

I first found out about flechettes when I was looking into the Anti Air guns on battleship Yamato and read that the 18-inch guns had an AA shell filled with thousands of 150mm flechettes. it would explode mid air creating a cone of darts a few hundred feet across and 800 yards long pilots described it as a spectacular sight because the shells also contained incendiary pellets so it was like a giant firework.

[@johanmetreus1268]

1000s of 15 cm flechettes in 46 cm guns? I think you made a typo somewhere ;)

[@yucannthahvitt]

150mm length genius, something 150mm in diameter really wouldn't be a "flechette" (which means small arrow) @@johanmetreus1268

[@michaeljensen6711]

@@johanmetreus1268 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Shiki_(anti-aircraft_shell) Not sure I would have like to be at the receiving end there...

[@GregConquest]

@@johanmetreus1268 18-inch (46cm) is the diameter inside the barrel of the guns, not the length of the shells. The projectiles were much longer than 46cm. 15cm is the length of the flechettes. It's not hard at all to imagine thousands of them inside such a huge shell.

[@foundnotlost]

@@GregConquest don't think he's doubting the shells existence, more questioning his use of measurement.

[@jarniwoop]

This takes me back. I remember as a kid in the 60's during the height of the Vietnam War browsing through all the cool stuff in the local Army Navy store, and finding a box full of these little bomblets, the early forged steel Lazy dogs. I asked the owner what the hell where these things , and he explained that they where shoveled out the door of cargo planes at altitude to kill Charlie. I thought, how retro. They looked cool but I didn't buy any.

[@michaelharrison8036]

I have one some friends bought me at a local gun show, they were told it was from WWI. I still have it around here somewhere.

[@matthbva]

I used to own a couple I probably got at a gun show in the 70s or 80s. Frustratingly innocuous in small numbers, without potential energy to make them scary.

[@davidbrennan660]

That must have been a Golden age of great surplus gear.

[@OnTheRiver66]

Excellent presentation, clear, accurate, and very informative. I had no idea that the terminal velocity of the lazy dog was so great.

[@emptiester]

Scary af

[@polarvortex3294]

Gravity really gets things moving. And I suppose if you went back in time you'd find that throwing rocks and spears from high places was something both the cavemen and medieval people did on occasion. Now we have people speculating about a hypothetical weapon dubbed the "rod from God," a refinement and space-age upgrade of the lazy dog & caveman idea.

[@Shinzon23]

Now watch what happens when we use these from orbit As ground bombardment weaponry. Say "hello" to "God's shotgun" and "goodbye" to whatever you aim it at; even if you aren't firing them from a chemical propellant or railgun system, the velocity built up from gravity alone would do some very neat large scale penetrating hits... if you use a railgun system, I could see each Itty bitty dart hitting like 10 kilogram bombs, but with massive penetrative properties

[@Shinzon23]

@@tafdiz depending on the atmospheric density yes

[@jackkessler1886]

I have a few of these and some smaller anti-personnel ones. My neighbor was an officer in the Seabees and later part of experimental weapons programs. He served in Korea. He helped me build pine wood derby cars as a kid. One day while I was over there he explained how they made them and then gave me everything he had. He was a good man.

[@justindunlap1235]

Old vets like that are the best.

[@davidbarr8394]

75 years old, Masters in English, and still love learning. Thanks for the hard work; research, organization and interpretation, analysis and lucid presentation, and most important these days, trustworthy information. Great channel, young man; keep it up!

[@DrMurdercock]

I always thought a comma wasn't needed after "and?" LEarned something myself

[@alanwatts8239]

​@@DrMurdercock He put the comma before the "and".

[@fritzbucher4726]

Flechette rounds always have had my curiosity. I remember seeing a box of loose flechettes in the early 80’s at a gun show and that’s when my fascination began.

[@CraigLogan-uz1qp]

I have some for my 12 gauge, might be 6 or 7 little arrows in each round...Garage sale, 2 bucks for 3 rounds

[@jimsvideos7201]

There was also a "hardened rod practice" warhead for the CRV7. I saw one that had been recovered after hitting a tank target; it was bent over into a U shape. Aside, RHA is rolled homogeneous armour rather than hardened.

[@Dave5843-d9m]

Armour was originally wrought iron (tough but quite soft). That evolved into steel and later case hardened steel. RHA is the latest version that delivers extremely tough metal with a hard skin on the outside.

[@Heres_Fatih]

​@@Dave5843-d9mhard skin you are talking about is FHA (Face Hardened Armor) RHA is the same hardness throughout (hence homogeneous)

[@generalrodcocker1018]

so my fiancée understands something else under "hardened rod practice"

[@bunnykiller]

My brother in law gave me one of the 50 cal versions when he got back from VN many yrs ago, the fins are rather sharp, capable of cutting finger tips if handled carelessly.

[@abrunosON]

You were messing with it and cut your fingers, didn't you?

[@1337fraggzb00N]

@@abrunosON he did. Yes, he did.

[@generalrodcocker1018]

of course he did 😄@@abrunosON

[@Loader138]

The sharpened fins were intended to cut bare feet and/or poke through the thinly soled footwear of the N. Vietnamese.

[@I_Automate]

Speaking of rocket powered kinetic energy weapons......any chance for a video on the LOSAT program? It never made it into service, but the idea of using what was basically a laser guided, tungsten tipped rocket spear to blast through any known armor has always been fascinating. The available test footage is certainly impressive as heck.

[@chudleyflusher7132]

I think the main problem is the amount of energy is required to put the giant darts into orbit.

[@BertRowe-b3l]

​​​@@chudleyflusher7132 The ionization barrier preventing terminal guidance is yet another difficulty. "Rods from God" can work if they are large enough to be area, rather than precision weapons. Hence the expense of orbiting huge projectiles... There was no free lunch to be had from gravity/kinetic weapons dropped from space as we have no armaments industry off of Earth's surface (yet). About 10 minutes after we have achieved asteroid mining and space factories, the most valuable first products of those technologies will probably be kinetic weapons (even plain old ROCKS), deployed down the gravity well against competitors. Go read "The Mote in God's Eye" for how THAT scenario will likely play out.

[@MrArgus11111]

@@chudleyflusher7132 LOSAT was an antitank rocket projectile... you are thinking of Rods From God

[@zachd1796]

Also a few noteworthy weapon systems that you may have missed: The M67 Recoiless Rifle M590 APERS. Intended range was 20-200 meters. Contained 2,400 steel flechettes each weighting about 0.5 grams. At a muzzle velocity of 365 m/s. The XM25. Not too much is known beyond the airburst round, but there where crowd control rubber flechette rounds rumoured. The Mk.1 Mod.0 Underwater Defense Gun. 2.5mm flechette, projectile mass is 10 grams and surprisingly achieves 265 m/s underwater.

[@thatsthewayitgoes9]

As a kid, in about 1959 - ‘62, we used to buy Yellow Dog Bombs and collect them. We knew what they were, but not long interest, they didn’t go boom. The ones we had were the forged with bent sheet metal fins.

[@dark2023-1lovesoni]

I'm pretty sure Taofledermaus used civilian made flechette cartridges. Which are somewhat notorious for loading half of them backwards to save space. I suspect the US Military flechette cartridges were likely made to a more exacting standard. Though there is a common phase in the US. That being "good enough for government work", which relies on the knowledge that most government contacts are awarded to the lowest bidder. It always amuses me when tactical gear companies use the term "Mil-Spec" as a buzzword or selling point. Because again, Mil-Spec isn't generally a good measure of actual quality.

[@CanadianMacGyver]

A lot of military flechette rounds (shells and rockets) also store the flechettes nose-to-tail. So long as the velocity and standoff distance are high enough, most of the flechettes will flip around to the correct orientation. However, if the fins are not sized correctly, the flechettes will never fly straight. Shotgun flechettes have fins proportionally similar to supersonic flechettes, but travel at much lower velocities, making them unlikely to be properly stabilized.

[@daveallen8824]

I think you missed something. In Vietnam we also had M-79 grenade launchers; One of the available rounds for this contained many flechettes - would be quite the home defense weapon at close range!

[@lukequigley121]

Have a bunch of .410 flechettes shells.. Shot a few and no bore damage.

[@shable1436]

Huge ass blow dart or HABD😂

[@abrahampilkington]

The phrase “old fashioned bee hive”, is so awesome I can’t even begin to wrap my head around it. Have I only been seeing modern bee hives my entire life? Are there Amish bees out there making hives like our ancestors did, the “old fashioned way”. So many beehive related questions.

[@Providence83]

Modern bee keepers use bee boxes for their apiaries. "Old fashioned" is a hard thing to say because it can mean anything from clay jars to hollowed out tree limbs. What they're probably referencing are wicker, straw, or bramble hives. They're woven from vines into a sort of basket you turn over to make a dome the bees build in. They have a similar enough shape to munitions, I guess.

[@WyvernYT]

In this case "old fashioned" means really old; the modern box hive you're familiar with was developed back in the 19th century. Before that there were skeps, basically inverted baskets, and Providence83 has talked about those.

[@smickster]

Just discovered this channel and I'm loving it. Thanks for all the interesting, well presented, well researched information.

[@WgCdrLuddite]

It is so nice to hear sabot pronounced correctly.

[@sforza209]

I’ve never heard anyone pronounce it Sab-ott.

[@WgCdrLuddite]

@@sforza209 British pronunciation is sab-o.

[@senatorjosephmccarthy2720]

12: 28. The first firing of the gunpowder in the case causes a recoil. All shots after, cause individual recoils. Every recoil moves the muzzle off the intended point of impact. 16: 33. In the Cavalry in the Vietnam war, we had two jeeps mounting a 106 recoilless rifle each, and six jeeps mounting one M-60 each. As per the Rat Patrol TV series of the '50s. Real suicide missions; no protection from enemy fire, but six 60 put out a .lot. of fire. Very lucky we were never ambushed. Thanks for the flechette history and information.

[@XSpamDragonX]

Wait, KZbin just recommended me a video from someone who might literally live a few blocks from where I'm watching it? That's kinda cool. Would you ever consider meeting your fans one day?

[@LoreTunderin]

Completely unrelated to the video, but I had to share this story with you. I moved into my apartment about 12 years ago, and there was a couple who lived in it before me and had been there during the showing. They had a 2 year old son at the time. About 5 years after they moved out and I moved in, KZbin randomly recommended me a video that was filmed IN MY OWN LIVING ROOM, that was recorded from EXACTLY WHERE I WAS SITTING AT THAT MOMENT. It was the previous tenants teaching their son his ABC's, filming him as he responded to flash cards. You can imagine how I felt.

[@blackwater2192]

No. Its because he insisted in his own channel. Just a coincidence its his channel. Its a terrible feature. I don't care what people around me are watching. For example if i watch documentaries and science stuff, and it so happens my neighbors or cell tower is sports related because its in season and what is being watch. Does not mean i want to be recommended it. It is getting worse and worse. Some people may not notice as the general area may have similar taste.

[@ryanmrowka8970]

​@@LoreTunderinthat's a cool story. Sometimes you have a break though of how small our world really is.......💡.. ... 🤏 🌎

[@cggentry]

​@@blackwater2192 I hope your cell tower becomes interested in grammar.

[@foundnotlost]

@@cggentry Savage....😂😂😂

[@Thomas..Anderson]

Underappreciated video.

[@faktablad]

Nasty, nasty weapon. Thanks for another great video!

[@Aasmodeuss]

Great video. I just came across your channel. I'm a bit of a history nerd and I've honestly never heard of the development and use of flechettes in WW1 before. You've just gained a new subscriber. Looking forward to watching more of your content.

[@EITFM]

Nice thorough look at flechettes

[@jessevanderhamm]

I can’t get enough of this channel! It’s sooo cool!

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

Obviously haven't watched the whole thing, but I noticed the Canadian rocket would be featured and I just love hearing about it.

[@CameronMcCreary]

Thank you for this presentation. It was very riveting.

[@lonniecrook1684]

Very informative and well presented. I was unaware of these weapons in use today. Thank you!

[@KeonsLab]

Ive been studying the KZbin algorithm as if it was a stock market and if my intuition is correct, then your channel is about to see a MASSIVE influx of viewers and subscribers as soon as the algorithm starts recommending your videos to people who watch channels like Forgotten Weapons. I’m predicting this channel to have ~150k to 450k subs by 2025 and several videos which will have gained almost, if not over 2M views. Specifically the videos about the flechettes (that one’s gonna get a LOT of views) and the exploders and fresnel lens. Your video titles are really good too!

[@Upsideround]

Man this is next level, in depth content. Thank yo.

[@Phaser1x]

Absolutely fascinating. Had no idea they were still being used today. Thank you.

[@marcelgordijn1400]

The even can release thes dart from space,calling thame ,Rods from God' Weapon System

[@78tag]

@@marcelgordijn1400 - pretty hard to get them into space in any quantities.

[@Theguyinthefez]

Very well made video! Both informative, clear, and explained at a top notch level.

[@cartridgegram]

For once, KZbin actually recommended me to a great channel, Fantastic video!

[@TarmanTheChampion]

Woah amazing video, fascinating information

[@ibiltit]

When I was a kid in the early 60’s I had a friend who lived near the Marine supply base in Barstow Calif. One day when I was visiting we went for hike along the fence line of the base. My friend used to walk the fence line often picking up little sealed packages that collected along the fence. They had resistors, capacitors, transistors and other small lightweight stuff. I was with him when we found a bunch of the Lazy Dog flechettes outside the fence sticking out of the dirt. We gathered them up took them home. We clipped the pointed tips of the fins. They made a nice stack of bombs. Kept them a long time until I gave them to my nephew who called bullets.

[@jerrylee7898]

Discovered your channel today, completely fascinating! Subscribed!

[@Shinzon23]

Thank you for mentioning the OICW; such a mutant program and weapon prototypes, but oddly influencing in that a lot of the tech and experience from the program was used elsewhere; the Xm25, caseless ammunition, fire control systems, etc

[@skookapalooza2016]

Gilles Messier is giving The Most Interesting Man in the World stiff competition. Another fantastic video!

[@zachd1796]

I just found your channel and I love the information. Even though I knew it all already, it was nice to not have a disagreement with a creator for once. Thank you.

[@Halli50]

It never ceases to amaze me how human ingenuity really flourishes when it comes to finding new and more wholesale ways to kill our fellow human beings. This video is just about one narrow "application", a more dramatic proof is the overall conflagration of technical innovations whenever there is an open conflict. We are obviously a cruel and militant species!

[@peterparsons7141]

Really interesting and well presented!

[@jonjackson6470]

Very interesting. Held my attention totally. Well explained thanks

[@richardpcrowe]

I thought that during Vietnam a 40mm shell with fleschettes was developed for the M-79 grenade launcher. A River Patrol Boat (PBR) crewmember told me that they were expecting these rounds to be used to clear the decks of enemy boats. I was not around to learn if they ever arrived.

[@PhotoBobBarker]

They did develop one, but it had the same problem that the shotgun version had (only to an even worse degree). it was replaced with the M576 and M576 a1 buckshot rounds.

[@stevemccull9699]

Spent some time in hospital with a LURP. HE said they were in the field armory . But not allowed! So they snuck in and took some. Very effective trench clearing

[@boynextdoor6930]

Dear sir, this is honestly the most scientific and accurate content I could find and that suits my range of interests. And it comes with a gentleman accent. Subscribed and waiting for more. Have a great day, U R awesome

[@MacsMachines]

They tried a pistol-fired version of these for the tunnel specialists in Vietnam War. They didn’t like um, the 1911 colt .45 had instant knock down, these rounds allowed even a hit enemy to empty their AK47 mag before expiring even when mortally wounded (not a good place to be in front of!). Also head lamps were rejected, ok hands free is useful but also a perfect target (the light was often the first thing to be shot at in the dark), they tended to just hold torches 🔦 away from their body line. Interesting video.

[@vinceb4380]

The QSPR Revolver fired a multi-projectile cartridge I believe in 357.

[@blxtothis]

These projectiles fascinated me the first time I saw them, when as an 8 year old, on a school visit to the Imperial War Museum in London

[@robot_spider]

I can't be the only one irritated by the fact this wasn't titled "The Dart of War", right? I mean, great content, but the pun was RIGHT there :D

[@napalmholocaust9093]

GRADS have them too. I saw a stack of rockets damaged from artillery, darts spilling. There are a few videos of them. They just go boom as far as I can tell, no buzz. Seen another that hit accurately and you couldn't really tell there were casualties because they were turned to mist and disappeared. The density of the pincushioning left on the trees was surreal. All lost.

[@dannileigh6426]

There are many nasty stories of the carnage left behind from these weapons.

[@ThomasPaine77]

Yt suggested this channel. Good topic on a banned weapon under the Geneva convention. To use them in war is a crime.

[@leemorgan8725]

Imagine the havoc they must cause when metal detecting for mines and UXO.

[@SuperFunkmachine]

There much better as theres no uxo

[@78tag]

@@SuperFunkmachine - how do you determine what is and what isn't with a metal detector?

[@SuperFunkmachine]

@@78tag you can't, but a metal detector only tells you where there is metal be it a lost coin or a nail.

[@78tag]

@@SuperFunkmachine - no shit?

[@Kevineitor199]

​@@SuperFunkmachinethe hell? a ship one maybe but metal detectors can tell different metals and tell you with either noise or letters

[@leesass3602]

I very much appreciate your well researched presentations, Thank you

[@nobody4248]

A little correction, flechette shells in Vietnam did not take over the role of cannister rounds, but those of the shrapnell shells.

[@matthewlemar9108]

This guy reminds me so much of Ian from forgotten weapons

[@migmagingenieria]

Great vid, thanks for sharing man!!! Cheers from Alberta-Canada!

[@rayflinn9580]

A really great presentation

[@felixthecleaner8843]

very interesting channel - clear and concise - Subbed!

[@sierraecho884]

I am sure this will have a revival in rail guns or modern guns. These are fantastic effective weapons.

[@allanturmaine5496]

Flechettes are so cool, and I've always been curious. Thanks for covering this!

[@78tag]

It's great that you think they are so "cool" - I'd like to hear your comments after being on the receiving end those devils. War is a SOB !!!

[@allanturmaine5496]

@@78tag yeah, sure. Next time I get barraged you'll be the first to know! 😘

[@78tag]

@@allanturmaine5496 - I guess it's time to go back to grandma's basement and play video war games eh?

[@allanturmaine5496]

@@78tag my grandma's dead. Also, why are you wasting your energy on this?

[@78tag]

@@allanturmaine5496 - right back at ya.

[@loganholmberg2295]

damn i wish i discovered your channel sooner. its hard to find Canadians putting out good history content. please keep up the good work. 👍👍

[@MrSabram07]

This dude makes really good videos

[@bravotwozero535]

I’ve heard the shotgun rounds were terrible and assumed they used the same flechettes as the aerial rockets. Thanks for clearing that up for me. I also appreciate the limitations for firearm munitions in general. I’ll check out the underwater usage video.

[@MrArgus11111]

shotgun flechette rounds were meme rounds, basically. Modern testing has shown them to be woefully poor performers and they are barely available anymore for good reason.

[@rhodes6185]

The Rhodesian Airforce also used a flechette bomb described in " Winds of destruction" by Peter Petter-Bower

[@rwsmith7638]

There's much more to Fleschettes than I thought!

[@deltavee2]

Subscribed and thumbs up henceforth. First exposure and really enjoyed it all. Cheers from Ottawa!

[@burnerphone3806]

Just found your channel. LOVE it!

[@copasetic1]

That shirt and tie work together so well.

[@impromptu24]

Randomly stumbled onto this video. Amazing job!!!

[@davidbrennan660]

Rogue Trooper …Hard Rain…….Great Channel.

[@Torquemada71.]

Great video. I've always seen flechettes in museums and wondered what the whole story behind them was, and now i know.

[@garymccreath2773]

Very informative, altogether a great presentation of the subject, well done

[@NICOLAI_VET]

I would like to give a shout out to the 84mm flecette round used in the Karl Gustav. Pretty awesome.

[@corinnecivish7673]

Fascinating indeed. I'm a old gal, and thought myself fairly well educated on such things, from a civilian's perspective, but never knew anything about flechettes in modern warfare!

[@patchbunny]

I recommend tracking down a paper by Bellamy in The Journal of Trauma from the 1960s titled "Little Arrows." It's a surgeon's account of treating flechette wounds in Vietnam. The problem with flechettes is if it stays stable going through you, it's only going to make a very little hole. Bullets want to yaw in tissue, but the design of a flechette prevents it from doing that so you have less of a wounding effect. Apparently, research since then has flechette designs which, when impacting at high enough speeds, want to bend in the target, increasing wound effects, but I've not seen first-hand research on that. I played with flechette shotgun rounds in the 90s. They failed as the flechettes are sharp, and the plastic wadding was propelled through the flechette mass, exiting the shotgun barrel first and imparting much lower velocity to the flechettes. The flechettes, many of which were loaded backwards to maximize payload, all tumbled and failed to penetrate a cardboard target at 7 yards.

[@ProductBasement]

Watching this, I couldn't help but think, "What if the military is testing some flechette rounds somewhere near my house and they accidentally kill me. I'd never know what hit me, but when the Internet finds out what I was watching when I got hit, I'd instantly become a meme."

[@genebohannon8820]

I make 1/2 pound rounds for my 40mm. Yes I have a permit ATF. Yes it key holes some but it is a 8' circle at 30 feet or so. Great for those sound shots!

[@johncage5368]

One little addition: What they fire from a rail gun is also just a metal arrow (wrapped in a discarding sabot that drops off after leaving the barrel), so arrows without attached propulsion are still in use, mainly due to its better stabilization compared to a ball.

[@-Pol-]

Since first seeing the appearance of drones on the modern day battlefield my first thought was that some sort of multi-projectile flechette style anti drone infantry round might be one line of defence.

[@generalrodcocker1018]

This was very interesting, thank you!

[@tomwilliams8675]

When I was going through basic training back in the mid 70's we were given a demo of a 105mm Howz. firing a Flechette round at a group of targets 250 meters down range level to the ground, "troops in the open, getting over run" OMG. I don't remember how many Flechettes there were in a 105 round, but there was enough. They had balloons tied on the the targets and there wasn't a single one left. 50 yards wide complete devastation.

[@davepowell7168]

Jugglin gerbils! A hard rain for those caught in open ground without an umbrella

[@77gravity]

I think there are air-to-air missiles that also use flechettes, the missile explodes just short of the target, throwing a cloud of small projectiles at the target.

[@hawkshadowoseanacy5171]

My first view lof one of your uploads. I found your presentation very informative well put together.

[@Za7a7aZ]

Thx ...great presentation with outstanding information...you got an other subscriber..

[@TheGriffon]

Anyone notice the distinct appearance of a Flechette to a Blow Gun Dart? Flechettes are used in many Surface to Air Missiles. The Missiles Proximity Fuse Triggers a Panel to Blow Off the Side of the Missile and the Flechettes are Blasted towards the Target before or if the Missile actually Impacts the Target. Watch the Movie “Behind Enemy Lines” and you will see this exact action in use.

[@theknifedude1881]

I like your presentation. Thank you for the video.

[@owensthilaire8189]

Good show brother. I have read about all of these weapons and weapon systems but never all from one source.

[@corystreat7605]

Very informative and thank you

[@webstercat]

I had the small little “bombs” as kid. Brought them at Army/Navy store.

[@richarderickson8840]

Used to buy the Lazy Dog Fleshette's at the Army surpluses store for10 cents each then play bombers with little green plastic solders. Fun times in late 50s

[@steviejustamann9689]

Gday from NZ. I had no idea, i thought everything just went boom! fascinating video .

[@j.f.fisher5318]

I feel like flechettes would be a worthy addition to a fantasy world with flying creatures.

[@Treblaine]

I believe the 10 000 rounds per enemy casualty was more from dividing the total ammunition expenditure by the total casualties from small arms, there were many extremely wasteful used of ammunition like machine guns delivering plunging fire over a huge distance with the expectation no rounds would hit and that it would just suppress the enemy and - probably most importantly - all the ammunition used in training. Also much of the combat was suppression fire which is sort of a bluff, when you shoot at an enemy position the enemy taking fire can't really tell if the fire is inaccurate area fire or is really close and the first few shots are unlucky. So it's not really a case that a soldier had a 0.01% chance of any given aimed shot hitting the enemy. Generally when they DID have a clear line of fire the enemy would be shot within 2-3 shots fired.

[@oilfortheworld]

Many greetings from Germany. Thank you for this great report. Only since the war in Ukraine I knew about these methods. Your lecture was really very interesting and I thank you for it.

[@KendlickLama]

"Flachettes are not gentlemanly and not honourable, sooo, where did we store the phosgene gas"

[@sangomasmith]

So modern Western (and nearly all non-Western) sabots are of the petal-type, and engage roughly the middle of the projectile and not the rear. The issue is that the thing they engage with is a section which has ridges or threads - something that you're going to struggle to cut into a 1-1.5mm dart while still hoping to make it cheaply. Another issue is that the spikey tip of the flechette will jam up the action of most automatic firearms, so you need some sort of cap regardless of where the flechette is engaging with the sabot. The final issue is the level of precision that you can machine your fins to - without spin stabilization the accuracy of the flechette will be negatively affected by any difference in the aerodynamic forces, which means that the fins need to be as nearly identical as possible. 20mm weapons appear to be where the cutoff is for making tank-style sabot rounds feasible, although I'm sure that with sufficient time and money you could shrink them down to, say, 10-15mm. You'd end up with a weapon with a complex feeding cycle and very expensive ammunition, so it would have to have some compelling reason to exist besides sounding cool.

[@markwashburn2418]

We played a game called jarts and threw these at each other as children while our parents drank alcohol. We didnt have helmets. No injuries but quite a few close calls. Fun times.

[@ignazachenbach5406]

Opening the video with _La Danse Macabre?_ Very nice.

[@glennalexon1530]

I’m giving you a thumbs-up for “deflagration”.

[@MichaelPontisso-mx1bq]

The 105mm flechette round for the m 60 tank had a secondary use against low flying aircraft

[@MrPanama9red]

I have several fleshettes from my time in the Air Force. They're like little nails with fins. Used mostly in 2.75 rocket heads that exploded them in a forward direction. About 3,000 per head called whistling death.

[@shable1436]

I'll stick with bomblets

[@blackhawk7r221]

Nothing cleared a grid of troops in the open quite as well as two Mighty Mouse pods loaded with flechette ordinance. And no UXO to deal with years later.

[@MrPanama9red]

Such as the CBU-33. A cluster bomb. @@shable1436

[@78tag]

Great presentation - I have to admit I didn't know there were underwater weapons like that. SUB'd

[@darkhorsegarage9623]

When I was a kid you could buy the little gray bomds from Sunny’s surplus. I used to glue them to my toy airplanes.