Ukraine War: What Are Controversial Cluster Bombs And How Munitions Work?

The US is all set to send Ukraine a cluster munitions package to help in its counteroffensive against Russia.

This has not gone well with Moscow which has termed it as an "act of desperation" by the United States. "It is an act of desperation and shows weakness against the backdrop of the failure of the much-touted Ukrainian counteroffensive," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

However, several allies of the US including the UK and New Zealand have expressed unease at Washington's decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs, which are banned by more than 100 countries.

So, What Are Cluster Bombs and why these countries are expressing concerns?
Cluster bombs are weapons that open in the air, releasing submunitions, or "bomblets," that are dispersed over a large area and are intended to wreak destruction on multiple targets at once.

A cluster munition, or cluster bomb, is a weapon containing multiple explosive submunitions.

Cluster munitions are deployed either through aerial deployment or ground and sea launch, unfurling in the air to disperse numerous submunitions that can cover an expansive region. Anyone present within the targeted vicinity of the cluster munition, whether they belong to the military or civilian population, faces an exceedingly high probability of suffering fatal consequences or enduring severe injuries.

From a military standpoint, their utilization against entrenched ground forces situated in trenches and fortified positions can yield devastating outcomes, making extensive regions hazardous and impractical to traverse until meticulous clearance procedures are carried out.

Humanity and Inclusion, a charitable organization based in France, also known as Handicap International, reports that approximately 40 per cent of the smaller submunitions within a cluster bomb explode upon impact. However, the remaining undetonated bomblets continue to pose a lethal danger even decades after their deployment.

These munitions remain primed for detonation and have the potential to cause severe injury or death to individuals at any given moment. Their impact is akin to that of landmines, often rendering affected regions uninhabitable. As a stark example, certain areas in Laos remain extensively contaminated many years after the cessation of the war.

What worries the most is the bombs may not explode now, but may in future. It means there are high chances of civilian deaths.

Who Are Producing Cluster Munitions?
The Cluster Munition Coalition report reveals that sixteen countries are presently engaged in the production of cluster munitions and have not made any commitments to cease such activities. These countries include Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States. According to the report, Russian forces deployed at least two recently developed types of cluster munitions in Ukraine during the preceding year.

It has to be noted that both Russia and Ukraine have been using the cluster bombs in the ongoing war. It has been reported that Russian cluster munitions exhibit a "dud rate" of 40 per cent, indicating that a significant number of these munitions pose an ongoing threat on the ground. In comparison, the average dud rate is estimated to be approximately 20 per cent.

On the other hand, the Pentagon states that its own cluster bomblets have a dud rate of less than 3 per cent.