rakoczynskij@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Jurek Rakoczynski) (03/19/91)
From: asuvax!gtephx!rakoczynskij@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Jurek Rakoczynski) In article <30285@mimsy.umd.edu>, wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL (Will Martin) writes: > Text deleted. > The SPIW program (Special Purpose Individual Weapon) was an Army R&D > project to develop a future infantry weapon, and considered all sorts of > fun options, usually combining point and area weaponry in one unit. > The 40mm grenade launcher hung under the M16 was a simple form of this > concept, but the SPIW prototypes included flechette-firing and other > versions of nontraditional weaponry. As I recall, SPIW sort of fizzled > out without any definite findings or recommendations. (There was a > Rifleman article on this not too long ago, I think.) > Text deleted. I good friend of mine that (worked) in Vietman mentioned, several years ago, about a weapon he would sometimes carry (depending where he was working). As I remember it, it was a 40mm grenade launcher (the ones with their own stock), that fired ~100+? flechettes from a single cartridge in a horizontal pattern. As he said, it did a nice job of clear out a section of forest. He had also mention about another method of distributing flechettes. Cargo planes where equipped with a spinner type disk (similiar to a salt spreader), with a hopper above it. Someone would fill the hopper with flechettes and as they would fall onto the spinning disk (just outside the plane), the disk would spread them out as they fall. They would penetrate any 2-legged or 4-legged object on the ground. I don't recall how far below ground they would penetrate. -- UUCP: {ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc}!gtephx!rakoczynskij Inet: gtephx!rakoczynskij@asuvax.eas.asu.edu Voice: +1 602 581 4867 Fax: +1 602 582 7111