Special Purpose Individual Weapon
The Special Purpose Individual Weapon (SPIW) was a long-running United States Army program to develop, in part, a flechette-firing "rifle", though other concepts were also involved. The concepts continued to be tested under the Future Rifle Program and again in the 1980s under the Advanced Combat Rifle program, but neither program resulted in a system useful enough to warrant replacing the M16.
The Special Purpose Individual Weapon at the museum of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland, United States
A flechette is a pointed, fin-stabilized steel projectile. The name comes from French fléchette, meaning "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.
World War I air dropped flechettes, probably French
Two designs of the Lazy Dog bomb. (Top: early forged steel design; Bottom: later lathe-turned steel design)
APS amphibious rifle
Steyr-Mannlicher ACR rifle
