Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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:
av8rblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/dropping-darts-from-an-aeroplane
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL%3A05361
amnestyusa.org/a-bloodstained-wall-full-of-flechettes
washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/18/flechette-projectile-ukraine-russia
cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-dundurn-crv-7-rocket-1.6104294
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:
av8rblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/dropping-darts-from-an-aeroplane
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL%3A05361
amnestyusa.org/a-bloodstained-wall-full-of-flechettes
washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/18/flechette-projectile-ukraine-russia
cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-dundurn-crv-7-rocket-1.6104294
