Cluster munitions: challenges, characteristics, and frontline benefits

U.S. President Joe Biden has approved the provision of cluster munitions to Ukraine, the withdrawal of which is to be announced today, July 7, The Washington Post reports.

According to the publication, the decision was made after months of internal administrative debate over whether to supply cluster munitions, which are banned in most countries.

Biden will bypass the restrictions and Congress will remove the munitions from the warehouses under a rarely used provision of the Foreign Assistance Act, according to an unnamed White House official. It allows the president to provide aid regardless of spending or arms export restrictions if he determines that it is in the vital interest of U.S. national security.

In fact, Washington can transfer cluster munitions to Kyiv even without circumventing legal restrictions, the Defense Express writes. 

The whole point is the legal prohibition and the decision of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency of the U.S. Defense Department in 2011. According to this decision, cluster munitions with a sub-element failure rate of more than 1% cannot be included in any military assistance, nor can they be exported as finished products or technologies.

But the same document contains a clear condition when such a permit can be granted. 

“The permit is granted if the cluster munitions will be used only against "clearly defined military targets and will not be used in areas where civilians are known to be present or in areas normally inhabited by civilians." However, despite this point, the US has not exported cluster munitions since 2011. But there may be an exception for Ukraine that will not require any changes to the regulatory framework,” the media explains.

What are cluster munitions?

First used during World War II, cluster munitions are a class of weapons that includes rockets, bombs, shells, and artillery shells that explode in midair and scatter smaller munitions over a large area. They are designed to destroy manpower or eliminate a military convoy.

Cluster bombs were used in Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. The US used them in Yugoslavia during the 1999 military conflict, as well as in the war in Afghanistan (2001).

Russia repeatedly dropped cluster bombs on Ukrainian cities, including residential areas, in 2022-2023.

Types of cluster munitions 

• Incendiary - used to set fire, they contain napalm or white phosphorus, and can be combined anti-personnel and anti-tank submunitions to hamper firefighting efforts;

• Anti-personnel cluster bombs use explosive fragmentation to kill troops and destroy soft (unarmored) targets. 

• Anti-tank - contain shaped charge warheads to pierce the armor of tanks and armored fighting vehicles. 

• Mine-laying - do not detonate immediately, but behave like conventional land mines that detonate later. These submunitions usually include a combination of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. 

• Chemical - designed to deliver chemical weapons, which was banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993.

• Anti-electrical - designed to disrupt and damage electric power transmission systems by producing short circuits in high-voltage power lines and electrical substations. 

Why are they controversial?

Cluster munitions were banned worldwide in 2008 when the Convention on Cluster Munitions was signed. More than 120 countries have joined it, including the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan. At the same time, the United States, Russia and Ukraine have not signed or ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

International law prohibits the use of cluster munitions as inhumane and indiscriminate. Thus, cluster munitions pose a threat to the civilian population because they hit a wide area, not distinguishing between military and civilians. They have a high failure rate: about 25% of submunition can remain on the ground and pose a danger to people for months, years or even decades after the conflict. 

What are the benefits of cluster munitions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces?

According to the Ukrainian news service TSN, cluster munitions will allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to inflict serious damage on Russian troops in close defense and in those areas of the front where the enemy is trying to advance. Cluster munitions can also be particularly useful against enemies in trenches.

This will help to compensate for the so-called shell famine in the Ukrainian army. After all, our Western partners claim to have a shortage of conventional 155-mm ammunition, and the reserves have been used up for supplies to Ukraine. Production can't meet the need at the front.

The U.S. military believes that if the U.S. provides the Ukrainian Armed Forces with advanced dual-purpose conventional munitions (DPICMs) (there are about 3 million of them), they will already be a significant reinforcement against Russian troops. These munitions cover an area with a diameter of 300 meters, so one such shell does the work of dozens of conventional high-explosive fragmentation shells.

Ukraine has also sent a request to the United States for submunitions from Mk-20 Rockeye II cluster bombs, which it plans to use to equip drones.

If Ukraine got F-16 fighters, the United States has a cluster munition for these aircraft called CBU-105. Such munitions are designed to destroy armored vehicles.

Supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine

The 2008 pact, known as the Convention on Cluster Munitions, was adopted by 123 countries, including a majority of the 28 NATO members. However, countries such as the United States, Russia, and Ukraine did not become parties to the convention. It is important to note that Russia is actively using cluster munitions in the war against Ukraine.

In December 2022, Ukraine asked the United States to provide it with cluster munitions for MLRS and artillery shells. At the time, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden was not ready to fulfill this request and was considering it.

In February 2023, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Western allies to provide the country with cluster munitions.

Following Ukraine's initial request to the United States for cluster munitions, there was an expansion of the appeal. Kyiv specifically asked Washington for MK-20 aircraft cluster bombs with the intention of modifying them for use with drones. It was revealed that there was some level of support for Ukraine's request within the U.S. Congress. However, the Biden administration strongly opposed the proposal due to the international treaty banning cluster munitions that was established in 2008.

Later, four members of the U.S. Congress from the Republican Party called on the U.S. President to send cluster munitions to Ukraine.

Human Rights Watch has called on the Biden administration not to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, warning of the danger to civilians.