Cluster bomb facts for kids
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles. Other cluster munitions are designed to destroy runways or electric power transmission lines, disperse chemical or biological weapons, or to scatter land mines. Some submunition-based weapons can disperse non-munitions, such as leaflets.
Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose risks to civilians both during attacks and afterwards. Unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians and/or unintended targets long after a conflict has ended, and are costly to locate and remove.
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.
Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin, Ireland in May 2008. The Convention entered into force and became binding international law upon ratifying states on 1 August 2010, six months after being ratified by 30 states. As of 1 October 2015, a total of 118 states have joined the Convention, as 98 States parties and 20 Signatories.
Taking effect on August 1, 2010, the "Convention on Cluster Munitions" bans the stockpiling, use and transfer of virtually all existing cluster bombs and provides for the clearing up of unexploded munitions. It had been signed by 108 countries, of which 38 had ratified it by the affected date, but many of the world's major military powers including the United States, Russia, Brazil and China are not signatories to the treaty.
In May 2008, then-Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Stephen Mull stated that the U.S. military relies upon cluster munitions as an important part of their defense strategy.
"Cluster munitions are available for use by every combat aircraft in the U.S. inventory, they are integral to every Army or Marine maneuver element and in some cases constitute up to 50 percent of tactical indirect fire support. U.S. forces simply cannot fight by design or by doctrine without holding out at least the possibility of using cluster munitions."
—Stephen Mull
U.S. arguments favoring the use of cluster munitions are that their use reduces the number of aircraft and artillery systems needed to support military operations and if they were eliminated, significantly more money would have to be spent on new weapons, ammunition, and logistical resources.
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 in World War II to attack both civilian and military targets. The technology was developed independently by the United States, Russia and Italy (see Thermos Bomb). The US used the 20-lb M41 fragmentation bomb wired together in clusters of 6 or 25 with highly sensitive or proximity fuzes.
Images for kids
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U.S. Honest John missile warhead cutaway around 1960, showing M134 bomblets filled with Sarin
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Half of a surface-to-air missile site in North Vietnam blanketed in exploding bomblets dispersed by a U.S. cluster munition, Vietnam War
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A US Vietnam era BLU-3 cluster bomblet
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During the Winter War of 1939–1940, the Soviet Union dropped RRAB-3, nicknamed Molotov bread baskets, which scattered incendiary bomblets, on Finland.
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A U.S. Navy Grumman A-6E Intruder drops CBU-59 cluster bombs over Iranian targets in 1988
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A US Navy F/A-18C Hornet launches from USS Nimitz to a mission in Southern Iraq. Among other weapons, the plane carries CBU-100 "Rockeye" cluster bombs.
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M77 submunition of type fired against Lebanon in 1986. Each MLRS rocket has 644 M77 packed in the warhead.
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Ban Advocates from Afghanistan and Ethiopia demonstrating outside of the Dublin conference
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Erik Thorstvedt leads a Norwegian parade celebrating the effectuation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 31 July 2010. (Photo: Norsk Folkehjelp)
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Ugandan demonstrator at the May 2008 Dublin conference for the Convention on Cluster Munitions
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USAF B-1 Lancer dropping CBU cluster bombs
See also
In Spanish: Bomba de racimo para niños
