Flak gun

Flak guns, also known as flak cannons, were starship and vehicle-mounted weapons that could fire thousands of dangerous tiny objects such as shrapnel, microexplosive pellets, or inert durasteel flechettes. Flak shells could burst at a set distance after being fired and would spread their contents in a dense cloud that could tear small, lightly armored airspeeders or even starfighters to shreds in an instant.

Like most vehicle and starship-mounted weaponry, flak cannons had a light, medium, and heavy model. Light flak cannons were typically mounted in surface installations on air-defense walkers, or as point-defense systems on gunboats or small capital ships, while medium and heavy models were typically mounted in large surface fortifications or were equipped to starships of cruiser size or larger such as the Munificent-class star frigates, Recusant-class Light Destroyers and the Providence-class Dreadnoughts of the Confederacy of Independent Systems' navy.

Text and facts from the “Flak gun” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.