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Cluster bomb
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Cluster munitions or cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched munitions that eject smaller submunitions: a cluster of bomblets. The most common types are intended to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles. Submunition based weapons designed to destroy runways, electric power transmission lines, deliver chemical or biological weapons, or to scatter land mines have also been produced. Some submunition based weapons can disperse non-munition payloads, such as leaflets.
Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose problems both during attacks and afterwards.
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Cluster munitions or cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched munitions that eject smaller submunitions: a cluster of bomblets. The most common types are intended to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles. Submunition based weapons designed to destroy runways, electric power transmission lines, deliver chemical or biological weapons, or to scatter land mines have also been produced. Some submunition based weapons can disperse non-munition payloads, such as leaflets.
Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose problems both during attacks and afterwards. During attacks the weapons are prone to indiscriminate effects, especially in populated areas. After a conflict unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians long after a conflict has ended. Unexploded submunitions are very costly to locate and remove.
Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was adopted in Dublin, Ireland in May 2008 and signed by 94 nations on 3-4 December 2008 in Oslo, Norway. The general rules of international humanitarian law aimed at protecting civilians also apply to cluster bombs as they do to all weapons.
Development
The first cluster bomb used operationally was the German SD-2 or Sprengbombe Dickwandig 2 kg, commonly referred to as the Butterfly Bomb. It was used during the Second World War to attack both civilian and military targets. The technology was developed independently by the United States of America, Russia and Italy (see Thermos Bomb). The US used the M41 20 lbs fragmentation bomb wired together to clusters of 6 or 25 with highly sensitive or proximity fuses.
From the 1970s to the 1990s cluster bombs became standard air-dropped munitions for many nations, in a wide variety of types. They have been produced by 34 countries and used in at least 23.
Artillery shells that employ similar principles have existed for decades. They are typically referred to as ICM (Improved Conventional Munitions) shells. The US military slang terms for them are "firecracker" or "popcorn" shells, for the many small explosions they cause in the target area.
Types of cluster bombs
A basic cluster bomb consists of a hollow shell and the two to more than 2,000 submunitions contained within it. Some types are dispensers that are designed to be retained by the aircraft after releasing their munitions. The submunitions themselves may be fitted with small parachute retarders or streamers to slow their descent (allowing the aircraft to escape the blast area in low-altitude attacks).
Modern cluster bombs and submunition dispensers are often multiple-purpose weapons, containing mixtures of anti-armor, anti-personnel, and anti-materiel munitions. The submunitions themselves may also be multi-purpose, such as combining a shaped charge, to attack armour, with a fragmenting case, to attack infantry, materiel, and light vehicles. Modern multipurpose munitions may have an incendiary effect.
A growing trend in the design of submunition-based weapons is the smart submunition, which uses guidance circuitry to locate and attack particular targets, usually armored vehicles. Recent weapons of this type include the U.S. CBU-97 sensor-fused weapon, first used in combat during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Munitions specifically intended for anti-tank use may be set to self-destruct if they reach the ground without locating a target, theoretically reducing the risk of unintended civilian deaths and injuries. Although smart submunition weapons are many times more expensive than standard cluster bombs, which are cheaper and simpler to manufacture, far fewer smart submunitions are required for defeating dispersed and mobile targets in an area, offsetting this cost.
Incendiary
Incendiary cluster bombs are intended to start fires, just as conventional incendiary bombs (also called firebombs). They are specifically designed for this purpose, with submunitions of white phosphorus or napalm, and they often include anti-personnel and anti-tank submunitions to hamper firefighting efforts. When used in cities they have often been preceded by the use of conventional explosive bombs to break open the roofs and walls of buildings to expose flammable contents to the incendiaries. One of the earliest examples is the so-called Molotov bread basket first used by the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939-40. This type of munition was extensively used by both sides in the strategic bombings of World War II. Bombs of this type were used to start firestorms in cases such as the bombing of Dresden in World War II and the firebombing of Tokyo.
A modern development of the incendiary cluster bomb is the thermobaric weapon. In these types of weapons, submunitions are used to deliver a highly combustible aerosol, which is subsequently ignited, resulting in a high pressure explosion.
Anti-personnel
Anti-personnel cluster bombs use explosive fragmentation to kill troops and destroy soft (unarmored) targets. Along with incendiary cluster bombs, these were among the first forms of cluster bombs produced by Germany during World War II. They were famously used during the Blitz with delay and booby-trap fusing to prevent firefighting and other damage control efforts in the bombed areas. They were also used with a contact fuse when attacking entrenchments. These weapons were most widely used during the Vietnam War when many thousands of tons of submunitions were dropped on Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Anti-tank
Most anti-armor munitions contain shaped charge warheads to pierce the armor of tanks and armored fighting vehicles. In some cases, guidance is used to increase the likelihood of successfully hitting a vehicle. Modern guided submunitions, such as those found in the U.S. CBU-97 can use either a shaped charge warhead or an explosively formed penetrator. Unguided shaped-charge submunitions are designed to be effective against entrenchments that incorporate overhead cover. To simplify supply and increase battlefield effectiveness by allowing a single type of round to be used against nearly any target, submunitions that incorporate both fragmentation and shaped-charge effects are produced.
Anti-runway
Anti-runway submunitions such as the British JP233 are designed to penetrate concrete before detonating, allowing them to shatter and crater runway surfaces. In the case of the JP233, the cratering effect is achieved through the use of a two-stage warhead that combines a shaped charge and conventional explosive. The shaped charge creates a small crater inside which the conventional explosive detonates to enlarge it. Anti-runway submunitions are usually used along with anti-personnel submunitions equipped with delay or booby-trap fuses that act as anti-personnel mines to make repair more difficult.
Mine-laying
When submunition-based weapons are used to disperse mines, their submunitions do not detonate immediately, but behave like conventional land mines that detonate later. The submunitions usually include a combination of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. Since such mines usually lie on exposed surfaces, the anti-personnel forms, such as the US Area Denial Artillery Munition normally deploy tripwires automatically after landing to make clearing the minefield more difficult. In order to avoid rendering large portions of the battlefield permanently impassable, and to minimize the amount of mine-clearing needed after a conflict, scatterable mines used by the United States are designed to self-destruct after a period of time from 4-48 hours. The internationally agreed definition of cluster munitions being negotiated in the Oslo Process may not include this type of weapon, since landmines are already covered in other specific international instruments.
Chemical weapons
During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States and Soviet Union developed cluster weapons designed to deliver chemical weapons. The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 banned their use. Six nations declared themselves in possession of chemical weapons. The US and Russia are in the process of destroying their stockpiles, although they have received extensions for the full destruction.
Anti-electrical
An anti-electrical weapon, the CBU-94/B, was first used by the U.S. in the Kosovo War in 1999. These consist of a TMD (Tactical Munitions Dispenser) filled with 202 BLU-114/B "Soft-Bomb" submunitions. Each submunition contains a small explosive charge that disperses 147 reels of fine conductive fiber, either carbon fiber or aluminum-coated glass fiber. Their purpose is to disrupt and damage electric power transmission systems by producing short circuits in high-voltage power lines and electrical substations. On the first attack, these knocked out 70% of the electrical power supply in Serbia. There are reports that it took 500 people 15 hours to get one transformer yard back on line after being hit with the conductive fibers.
Leaflet dispensing
The LBU-30 is designed for dropping large quantities of leaflets from aircraft. (Dispensing leaflets from the air is a common propaganda tactic in wartime.) Enclosing the leaflets within the bomblets ensures that the leaflets will fall on the intended area without being dispersed excessively by the wind. The LBU-30 consists of SUU-30 dispensers that have been adapted to leaflet dispersal. The dispensers are essentially recycled units from old bombs. The LBU-30 was tested at Eglin Air Force Base in 2000, by an F-16 flying at .
History of usage
First Chechen War
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1999
There were seven confirmed and four likely incidents involving civilian deaths from cluster bomb use by the United States and Britain. Altogether, some ninety to 150 civilians died from cluster bomb use. The most serious incident involving civilian deaths and the use of cluster bombs occurred on May 7, during the Cluster bombing of Niš. The mid-day attack on Niš airfield, which is located inside the urban zone, killed 14 civilians and injured 28.
After the incident in Niš, the White House issued a directive to the Pentagon to restrict cluster bomb use (at least by U.S. forces). Human Rights Watch considered that to have been the right move, but was concerned, given those risks, that cluster bombs were being used in attacks on urban targets in the first place. The mid-May prohibition against the further use of cluster bombs clearly had an impact on the level of civilian deaths as the war continued, particularly as bombing with unguided weapons (which would otherwise include cluster bombs) significantly intensified towards the end of the month. Nevertheless, the Royal Air Force continued to drop cluster bombs (official chronologies show use at least on May 17, May 31, June 3, and June 4).
Second Chechen War
Afghanistan, 2001
- Used by the United States
U.S. military sources told Human Rights Watch that the U.S. Air Force began dropping cluster bombs within a matter of days of the first attacks. United Nations officials stated that on October 22, 2001 U.S. cluster bomb submunitions landed on the village of Shaker Qala, near the city of Herat in western Afghanistan, killing nine civilians and injuring fourteen.
Afghanistan joined 100 nations signing a treaty banning the use of cluster munitions. According to the New York Times newspaper, in a surprising last-minute change of policy, the government of President Hamid Karzai agreed to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2008.
Lebanon, 2006
Human Rights Watch said there was evidence that has Israel used cluster bombs too close to civilians and described them as "unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians" and that "they should never be used in populated areas." Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using cluster munitions in an attack on Bilda, a Lebanese village, on 19 July which killed 1 civilian and injured 12, including seven children. The Israeli "army defended ... the use of cluster munitions in its offensive with Lebanon, saying that using such munitions was 'legal under international law' and the army employed
them 'in accordance with international standards.'" Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mark Regev added, "[I]f NATO countries stock these weapons and have used them in recent conflicts — in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq — the world has no reason to point a finger at Israel."
A subsequent investigation by the Human Rights Watch revealed that Hezbollah also used several cluster bombs in its shelling of northern Israel. . This was the first documented use of cluster munitions by Hezbollah.
Georgia, 2008
- Used by Georgia, Russia denies use of such equipment
According to the Human Rights Watch, the Russian Air Force dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs in populated areas during the war in Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens: "this is the first known use of cluster munitions since 2006, during Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon" - the group said. Russian Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, answering question about the topic said: "We never use cluster bombs. There is no need to do so." Human Rights Watch said on September 1 that Georgia had admitted to using cluster bombs during the hostilities in South Ossetia, The Associated Press and AFP reported. “Georgian armed forces have GRADLAR 160 multiple launch rocket system and rockets of MK4 LAR 160 type (with M85 bomblets) with the range of 45 kilometers,” the Georgian MoD said. Additionally, Human rights watch admitted, that photos from Shindisi and Pkhvenisi allegedly showing Russian submunition duds, are actually images of M85 bomblets as used by the Georgian military. However, Georgia denied the use in that area.
Sri Lanka, 2008/2009
The "pro-rebel TamilNet website" reported that Sri Lankan government forces used cluster bombs against the Tamil minority community in the Sri Lankan Civil War. On February 3, 2009, U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said a hospital in northern Sri Lanka was hit by cluster munitions, but the following day he admitted that he was wrong. Sri Lankan Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara denied that the government forces had such weapons and claimed that they did not have the ability to fire them.
Threat to civilians
While all weapons are potentially dangerous to civilians, cluster bombs pose a particular threat to civilians for two reasons: they have a wide area of effect, and they have consistently left behind a large number of unexploded bomblets. The unexploded bomblets remain dangerous for decades after the end of a conflict.
Cluster munitions are opposed by many individuals and hundreds of groups, such as the Red Cross, the Cluster Munition Coalition and the United Nations, because of the high number of civilians that have fallen victim to the weapon. Since February 2005, Handicap International called for cluster munitions to be prohibited and collected hundreds of thousands of signatures to support its call. 98% of 13,306 recorded cluster munitions casualties that are registered with Handicap International are civilians, while 27% are children.
The area affected by a single cluster munition, known as its footprint, can be as large as two or three American football fields . A single unguided M26 MLRS rocket can effectively cover an area of 0.23 km˛. In US and most allied services, the M26 has been replaced by the M30 guided missile fired from the MLRS. The M30 has greater range and accuracy but a smaller area of coverage. It is worth noting that for reasons including both danger to civilians and changing tactical requirements, the non-cluster unitary warhead XM31 missile is, in many cases, replacing even the M30.
Because of the weapon's broad area of effect, they have often been documented as striking both civilian and military objects in the target area. This characteristic of the weapon is particularly problematic for civilians when cluster munitions are used in or near populated areas and has been documented by research reports from groups such as Human Rights Watch, Landmine Action, Mines Action Canada and Handicap International. In some cases, like the Zagreb rocket attack, civilians were deliberately targeted by such weapons.
Unexploded ordnance
The other serious problem is unexploded ordnance (UXO) of cluster bomblets left behind after a strike. These bomblets may be duds or in some cases the weapons are designed to detonate at a later stage. In both cases, the surviving bomblets are live and can explode when handled, making them a serious threat to civilians and military personnel entering the area. In effect, the UXOs can function like land mines.
Even though cluster bombs are designed to fully explode, there are always some individual submunitions that do not explode on impact. The US-made MLRS with M26 warhead and M77 submunitions are supposed to have a 5% dud rate but studies have shown that some have a much higher rate. The rate in acceptance tests prior to the Gulf War for this type ranged from 2% to a high of 23% for rockets cooled to before testing. The M483A1 DPICM artillery-delivered cluster bombs have a reported dud rate of 14% .
Given that each cluster bomb can contain hundreds of bomblets and be fired in volleys, even a small failure rate can lead each strike to leave behind hundreds or thousands of UXOs scattered randomly across the strike area. For example, after the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, UN experts have estimated that as many as one million unexploded bomblets may contaminate the hundreds of cluster munition strike sites in Lebanon.
In addition, some cluster bomblets, such as the BLU-97/B used in the CBU-87, are brightly colored to increase their visibility and warn off civilians. However, the color, coupled with their small and nonthreatening appearance, has caused children to interpret them as toys. This problem was exacerbated in the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), when US forces dropped humanitarian rations from airplanes with similar yellow-colored packaging as the BLU-97/B, yellow being the NATO standard colour for high explosive filler in air weapons. The rations packaging was later changed first to blue and then to clear in the hope of avoiding such hazardous confusion.
The US military is developing new cluster bombs that it claims could have a much lower (less than 1%) dud rate. However, in the past, manufacturers' claims about new cluster munitions have proven unreliable and the same problems with unexploded ordnance have persisted. Previous claims for example about the reliability of the CBU-87 with BLU-97 submunitions were not borne out by reality in Afghanistan and Kosovo. Sensor-fused weapons that contain a limited number of submunitions that are capable of autonomously engaging armored targets may provide a viable, if costly, alternative to cluster munitions that will allow multiple target engagement with one shell or bomb while avoiding the civilian deaths and injuries consistently documented from the use of cluster munitions. Certain such weapons may be allowed under the recently adopted Convention on Cluster Munitions, provided they do not have the indiscriminate area effects or pose the unexploded ordnance risks of cluster munitions.
Civilian deaths from unexploded cluster bomblets
- In Vietnam, people are still being killed as a result of cluster bombs and other objects left by the US and Vietnamese military forces. Estimates range up to 300 people killed annually by unexploded ordnance.
- During the 1999 NATO war against Yugoslavia U.S. and Britain dropped 1,400 cluster bombs in Kosovo. Within the first year after the end of the war more than 100 civilians died from unexploded British and American bombs. Unexploded cluster bomblets caused more civilian deaths than landmines.
- Israel used cluster bombs in Lebanon in 1978 and in the 1980s. Those weapons used more than two decades ago by Israel continue to affect Lebanon. During the 2006 war in Lebanon Israel dropped around 1,800 cluster bombs on Hezbollah-controlled areas.
Areas with significant unexploded cluster bomb submunitions
Countries that have been affected by cluster munitions include:
International legislation
Cluster bombs fall under the general rules of international humanitarian law, but were not specifically covered by any currently binding international legal instrument until the signature of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2008. This international treaty stemmed from an initiative by the Government of Norway known as the Oslo Process which was launched in February 2007 to prohibit cluster munitions. More than 100 countries agreed to the text of the resulting Convention on Cluster Munitions in May 2008 which sets out a comprehensive ban on these weapons. This treaty was signed by 94 states in Oslo on 3-4 December. The Oslo Process was launched largely in response to the failure of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) where five years of discussions failed to find an adequate response to these weapons. The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is campaigning for the widespread signature and ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
A number of sections of the Protocol on explosive remnants of war (Protocol V to the 1980 Convention), 28 November 2003 occasionally address some of the problems associated with the use of cluster munitions, in particular Article 9, which mandates States Parties to "take generic preventive measures aimed at minimising the occurrence of explosive remnants of war". In June 2006, Belgium was the first country to issue a ban on the use (carrying), transportation, export, stockpiling, trade and production of cluster munitions, and Austria followed suit on 2007-12-07.
There has been parliamentary activity on cluster munitions in several countries, including Austria, Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. In some of these countries, ongoing discussions concerning draft legislation banning cluster munitions, along the lines of the legislation adopted in Belgium and Austria will now turn to ratification of the global ban treaty. Norway and Ireland have national legislation prohibiting cluster munitions and were able to deposit their instruments of ratification to the Convention on Cluster Munitions immediately after signing it in Oslo on 3 December.
International treaties
Other weapons, such as land mines, have been banned in many countries under specific legal instruments for several years, notably the Ottawa Treaty to ban land mines, and some of the Protocols in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons that also help clearing the lands contaminated by left munitions after the end of conflicts and provides international assistance to the affected populations. However, until the recent adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin in May 2008 cluster bombs were not banned by any international treaty and were considered legitimate weapons by some governments.
To increase pressure for governments to come to an international treaty on November 13, 2003, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) was established with the goal of addressing the impact of cluster munitions on civilians. At the launch, organised by Pax Christi Netherlands, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, now Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, addressed the the crowd of gathered government, NGO, and press representatives.
International governmental deliberations in the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons turned on the broader problem of explosive remnants of war, a problem to which cluster munitions have contributed in a significant way. However, despite calls from humanitarian organizations (notably the International Comittee of the Red Cross and Handicap International) and approximately 30 governments, international governmental negotiations to develop specific measures that would address the humanitarian problems cluster munitions pose did not prove possible in the conventional multilateral forum and, because of its consensus decision making practices, current deliberations in the CCW face serious challenges in developing a meaningful outcome.
In February 2006, Belgium announced its decision to ban the weapon by law. Then Norway announced a national moratorium in June and Austria announced its decision in July to work for an international instrument on the weapon. The international controversy over the use and impact of cluster munitions during the war between Hezbollah and Israel in July and August 2006 added weight to the global campaign for a ban treaty.
Against this background, a new flexible multilateral process similar to the process that led to the ban on anti-personnel land mines in 1997 (the Ottawa Treaty) began with an announcement in November 2006 in Geneva as well at the same time by the Government of Norway that it would convene an international meeting in early 2007 in Oslo to work towards a new treaty prohibiting cluster munitions. 49 governments attended the meeting in Oslo February 22-23, 2007 in order to reaffirm their commitment to a new international ban on the weapon. During the meeting Austria announced an immediate moratorium on the use, production and transfer of cluster munitions until a new international treaty banning the weapons is in place.
A follow-up meeting in this process was held in Lima in May where around 70 states discussed the outline of a new treaty, Hungary became the latest country to announce a moratorium and Peru launched an initiative to make Latin America a cluster munition free zone.
In addition, the ICRC held an experts meeting on cluster munitions in April 2007 which helped clarify technical, legal, military and humanitarian aspects of the weapon with a view to developing an international response.
Further meetings took place in Vienna from 4-7 December 2007, and in Wellington from 18-22 February 2008 where a declaration in favor of negotiations on a draft convention was adopted by more than 80 countries. In May 2008 after around 120 countries had subscribed to the Wellington Declaration and participated in the Dublin Diplomatic Conference from 19 to 30 May 2008.
At the end of this Conference, 107 countries agreed to adopt the Convention on Cluster Munitions, that bans cluster munitions and was opened for signature in Oslo on December 3-4, 2008 where it was signed by 94 countries.
In July 2008, United States Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates implemented a policy to eliminate by 2018 all cluster bombs that do not meet new safety standards.
In November 2008, ahead of the signing Conference in Oslo, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on all European Union governments to sign and ratify the Convention.
Countries that have used cluster munitions
At least fourteen countries have used cluster munitions in recent history (since the creation of the United Nations). All of these nations still have stocks of these munitions. Countries that have subscribed to the Wellington Declaration, agreeing in principle to ban cluster bombs, are listed in bold.
In addition, two countries that no longer exist (the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia) have used cluster bombs.
Countries that have produced cluster munitions
At least 28 nations have produced cluster munitions in recent history (since the creation of the United Nations). All of these nations still have stocks of these munitions. Most (but not all) of them are involved in recent wars or long unsolved international conflicts; however most of them did not use the munitions they produced. Countries that have subscribed to the Wellington Declaration, agreeing in principle to ban cluster bombs, are listed in bold.
Countries that have stocks of cluster munitions
As of 2008, at least 75 countries have stockpiles of cluster munitions (including all the countries above, that have produced them). Countries listed in bold have subscribed to the Wellington Declaration, agreeing in principle that their stockpiles should be destroyed.
See also
External links
- Connect U.S. Fund April 2008
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- - Official website serving the government initiative to ban cluster munitions
- 16 May 2007
- website
- November 21, 2006
- Ya Libnan December 29, 2007
- Yahoo! News May 28, 2008
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