A flechette or fléchette (/fleɪˈʃɛt/ fle-SHET) is a pointed, fin-stabilized steel projectile. The name comes from French fléchette (from flèche), meaning "little arrow" or "dart". They have been used as ballistic weapons since World War I. Delivery systems and methods of launching flechettes vary, from a single shot to thousands in a single explosive round. The use of flechettes as antipersonnel weapons has been controversial; however, in war, it is not prohibited by the Hague Convention.
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👉 Flechette in the context of Kinetic energy weapon
A kinetic energy weapon (also known as kinetic weapon, kinetic energy warhead, kinetic warhead, kinetic projectile, kinetic kill vehicle) is a projectile weapon based solely on a projectile's kinetic energy to inflict damage to a target, instead of using any explosive, incendiary, chemical or radiological payload. All kinetic weapons work by attaining a high flight speed – generally supersonic or even up to hypervelocity – and collide with their targets, converting their kinetic energy and relative impulse into destructive shock waves, heat and cavitation. In kinetic weapons with unpowered flight, the muzzle velocity or launch velocity often determines the effective range and potential damage of the kinetic projectile.
Kinetic weapons are the oldest and most common ranged weapons used in human history, with the projectiles varying from blunt projectiles such as rocks and round shots, pointed missiles such as arrows, bolts, darts, and javelins, to modern tapered high-velocity impactors such as bullets, flechettes, and penetrators. Typical kinetic weapons accelerate their projectiles mechanically (by muscle power, mechanical advantage devices, elastic energy or pneumatics) or chemically (by propellant combustion, as with firearms), but newer technologies are enabling the development of potential weapons using electromagnetically launched projectiles, such as railguns, coilguns and mass drivers. There are also concept weapons that are accelerated by gravity, as in the case of kinetic bombardment weapons designed for space warfare.
In this Dossier
Flechette in the context of Air gun
An air gun or airgun is a gun that uses compressed air or other pressurized gases to fire projectiles, reminiscent of the principle behind the ancient blowgun. This is in contrast to a firearm, which shoots projectiles using pressure generated via combustion of a chemical propellant, most often black powder in antique firearms and smokeless powder in modern firearms.
Air guns come in both long gun (air rifle) and handgun (air pistol) forms. Both types typically propel metallic projectiles that are either diabolo-shaped pellets or spherical shots called BBs, although in recent years Minié ball-shaped cylindro-conoidal projectiles called slugs are gaining more popularity. Certain types of air guns (usually air rifles) may also launch fin-stabilized projectile such as darts (e.g., tranquilizer guns) or hollow-shaft arrows (so-called "airbows").
Flechette in the context of Kinetic energy penetrator
A kinetic energy penetrator (KEP), also known as long-rod penetrator (LRP), is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate vehicle armour using a flechette-like, high-sectional density projectile. Like a bullet or kinetic energy weapon, this type of ammunition does not contain explosive payloads and uses purely kinetic energy to penetrate the target. Modern KEP munitions are typically of the armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) type.
Flechette in the context of Sabot (firearms)
A sabot (UK: /sæˈboʊ, ˈsæboʊ/, US: /ˈseɪboʊ/) is a supportive device used in firearm/artillery ammunitions to fit/patch around a projectile, such as a bullet/slug or a flechette-like projectile (such as a kinetic energy penetrator), and keep it aligned in the center of the barrel when fired. It allows a narrower projectile with high sectional density to be fired through a barrel of much larger bore diameter with maximal accelerative transfer of kinetic energy. After leaving the muzzle, the sabot typically separates from the projectile in flight, diverting only a very small portion of the overall kinetic energy.
The sabot component in projectile design is the relatively thin, tough and deformable seal known as a driving band or obturation ring needed to trap propellant gases behind a projectile, and also keep the projectile centered in the barrel, when the outer shell of the projectile is only slightly smaller in diameter than the caliber of the barrel. Driving bands and obturators are used to seal these full-bore projectiles in the barrel because of manufacturing tolerances; there always exists some gap between the projectile outer diameter and the barrel inner diameter, usually a few thousandths of an inch; enough of a gap for high pressure gasses to slip by during firing. Driving bands and obturator rings are made from material that will deform and seal the barrel as the projectile is forced from the chamber into the barrel.