page_title: Flechette
section_title: Air-dropped flechette
hierarchical_section_title: Flechette / Air-dropped flechette
context_page_description: A flechette fleh-SHET is a pointed steel projectile with a vaned tail for stable flight. The name comes from French fléchette, "little arrow" or "dart", and sometimes retains the acute accent in English: fléchette. 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, and is considered by some pacifist groups to be a human rights violation.
context_section_description: During World War I, flechettes were dropped from aircraft to attack infantry.
  Later the U.S. used Lazy Dog bombs, which are a small, unguided kinetic projectile typically about 1.75 inches (44 mm) in length, 0.5 inches (13 mm) in diameter, and weighing about 0.7 ounces (20 g).
  The weapons were designed to be dropped from an aircraft. They contained no explosive charge but as they fell they would develop significant kinetic energy making them lethal and able to easily penetrate soft cover such as jungle canopy, several inches of sand or light armor. Lazy Dog munitions were simple and cheap; they could be dropped in huge numbers in a single pass. Though their effects were often no less gruesome or indiscriminate than other projectiles, they did not leave unexploded ordnance (UXO) that could be active years after a conflict ended. Lazy Dog projectiles were used primarily during the Korean and the Vietnam Wars.
caption: World War I air dropped flechettes, probably French
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