SAR 18#6
SPIW Above: Left side view of ArmaLite AR-15 serial no. 4, with 20-round magazine and sling. (U.S. Army Infantry Board photo, dated May 27, 1958) AR-15 in favor of continued procurement of the 7.62 NATO-caliber M14. By February 17th, the first civilian M14 procurement contract was in place at the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation’s Winchester-Western Division, where 35,000 M14 rifles were to be fabricated at $69.75 apiece. Colt’s Takes Over the ArmaLite AR-15 As stated in The Black Rifle, another Collector Grade title co-authored by myself and Dr. Ezell, … An initial, 20-year “letter of understanding” was put on paper as early as September 22, 1958 regarding “the ArmaLite matter,” but it was some months before any actual money could be put together. … Ironically, the final signing of the arrangement between Colt’s new directors and the newly-formed Fairchild-Stratos Corporation coincided almost to the day with General Taylor’s formal veto of further .22 caliber rifle purchases by the Army. The All-Purpose Hand-Held Weapon (APHHW) Returning to the text of The SPIW, one other Ordnance recommendation had been enthusiastically endorsed by General Taylor, which paved the way for the development of a completely new light, flat-shooting weapon that would truly qualify as the successor to the M14. It would fire patterned bursts of the ten-grain flechettes developed by Aircraft Armaments, Inc., and would be called the All-Purpose Hand-Held Weapon (APHHW). The Infantry Board Tests the “Cartridge, .22 Caliber, Arrow” With the M14 finally locked securely SAR Vol. 18, No. 6 96 Nov., Dec. 2014
into a production program and the ArmaLite proponents temporarily stunned into disarray by General Taylor’s adamant veto of the AR-15, the spotlight slowly swung onto the flechette cartridge and the concept of the All-Purpose Hand-Held Weapon. With the future at stake, the AAI engineers held their breath as lots of the single flechette cartridge they now dubbed the “AAI Arrow” were examined and fired in a crucial 1960 Army Infantry Board trial. The Infantry Board trial report, dated March 18, 1960, contained a list of perceived deficiencies of the flechette cartridge, which included the following: • cartridge case lacks rigidity and hardness; • accuracy in semiautomatic fire is not satisfactory; • weapon appears to lose accuracy as it heats; • danger zone for sabot particles is excessive; • muzzle flash is excessive. Nevertheless, the report’s overall conclusions were very encouraging. The United States Army Infantry Board concludes that: • The single flechette has sufficient military value under temperate weather conditions to warrant further development. • The single flechette has more potential than… 7.62mm NATO ammunition for meeting the proposed direct fire ammunition requirements of the All-Purpose Hand-Held Weapon. The “Cartridge, 5.6mm, XM110” in Arctic Trials By May, 1960, the first-generation AAI flechette cartridge’s short-lived proprietary designation had been superseded: the “Arrow” was now officially the “Cartridge, 5.6mm, XM110.” Results of trials of several cartridges under Arctic conditions, including 1,000 rounds of the newly-named XM110 single-flechette round along with several lots of 7.62mm M59 and M80 ball and the Winchester .224, appeared in a report prepared by the Arctic Test Board, dated May 7, 1960. Again, the single-round accuracy of the XM110 flechette cartridge was criticized, even though the stated purpose of the APHHW program was to provide the combat soldier with the means to fire controlled bursts, intentionally spread around the point of aim. A perfected weapon capable of firing bursts of flechettes did not yet exist, however, and so there was little the Army could do except continue to record the results of single-round firings, which were often inexplicably erratic. However, the overall consensus was again favorable with the Army being particularly excited about the XM110 flechette cartridge. Two salient paragraphs from the Accuracy Test Results section of the Fort Greely report read as follows: … Due to the flat trajectory of the single flechette, it was unnecessary to make elevation adjustments on the sight when firing at 300 and 500 yards. … Three rounds of single flechette were fired into eight inches of solid ice at 500 yards range. All flechettes perforated the target. Overall, the promised APHHW was deemed definitely worthy of further development. Competition for AAI A parallel Defense Department flechette weapon-and-ammunition development program was set up, under which Springfield Armory was tasked to come up with an alternative proposal for a flechette-firing weapon, and Frankford Arsenal was ordered to develop the best possible competitor to the piston-primed XM110 cartridge. One important area of commonality was stipulated from the outset: AAI’s flechettes and rubber-obdurated, fiberglass “puller” sabots were deemed satisfactory, and were to be loaded as an AAI-supplied “package” into both the XM110 cartridge and the new Frankford/ Springfield round. Thus there soon existed a new, shorter, conventionally-primed version of the single flechette cartridge, called the XM144. Design studies for two types of flechette-firing shoulder rifles were begun at Springfield. Note: There is a significant amount of documentation, manuals, reports and photos regarding the SPIW program on www.smallarmsoftheworld.com website. www.smallarmsreview.com 97 SAR Vol. 18, No. 6
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SPIW<br />
Above: Left side view of ArmaLite AR-15<br />
serial no. 4, with 20-round magazine and<br />
sling. (U.S. Army Infantry Board photo,<br />
dated May 27, 1958)<br />
AR-15 in favor of continued procurement<br />
of the 7.62 NATO-caliber M14. By<br />
February 17th, the first civilian M14 procurement<br />
contract was in place at the<br />
Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation’s<br />
Winchester-Western Division, where<br />
35,000 M14 rifles were to be fabricated<br />
at $69.75 apiece.<br />
Colt’s Takes Over the ArmaLite AR-15<br />
As stated in The Black Rifle, another<br />
Collector Grade title co-authored by myself<br />
and Dr. Ezell,<br />
… An initial, 20-year “letter of understanding”<br />
was put on paper as early<br />
as September 22, 1958 regarding “the<br />
ArmaLite matter,” but it was some<br />
months before any actual money could<br />
be put together.<br />
… Ironically, the final signing of<br />
the arrangement between Colt’s new<br />
directors and the newly-formed Fairchild-Stratos<br />
Corporation coincided almost<br />
to the day with General Taylor’s<br />
formal veto of further .22 caliber rifle<br />
purchases by the Army.<br />
The All-Purpose Hand-Held<br />
Weapon (APHHW)<br />
Returning to the text of The SPIW,<br />
one other Ordnance recommendation<br />
had been enthusiastically endorsed by<br />
General Taylor, which paved the way<br />
for the development of a completely<br />
new light, flat-shooting weapon that<br />
would truly qualify as the successor to<br />
the M14. It would fire patterned bursts<br />
of the ten-grain flechettes developed<br />
by Aircraft Armaments, Inc., and would<br />
be called the All-Purpose Hand-Held<br />
Weapon (APHHW).<br />
The Infantry Board Tests the<br />
“Cartridge, .22 Caliber, Arrow”<br />
With the M14 finally locked securely<br />
<strong>SAR</strong> Vol. 18, No. 6 96 Nov., Dec. 2014
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