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CBU Cluster Munitions

The US announced on 07 July 2023 it would send Kiev cluster munitions as part of an $800-million security package intended to help Ukrainian forces against Russia, despite concerns over the long-term risk posed to civilians by bomblets that fail to explode. The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which took effect in 2010, bans all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs. More than 100 countries have signed the treaty, but the US, Russia and Ukraine have not.

A US military official said 12 July 2023 Ukraine had received cluster munitions, less than a week after the United States pledged to transfer the controversial weaponry to Ukrainian forces. US Lieutenant General Douglas Sims said the "cluster munitions are in Ukraine." Asked about the slower pace of advance in Ukraine's counteroffensive, he told journalists that "this is hard warfare, it's in really tough terrain, it's under fire". "When you consider all that, it's pretty remarkable," he added.

White House and Pentagon officials argued cluster munitions will help ease Ukraine's "dramatically high expenditure rates" of ammunition. Cluster munitions can clear trenches and other defensive positions, as well as killed unprotected personnel, suchh as the crews of towed artillery. By the end of July, after two months of slow progress, Ukraine appeared to be accellerating its counteroffensive, ramping up the deployment of extra troops to the southern front and signaling a new phase of the operation.

Ukraine doubled down on its requests for controversial cluster munitions which it wanted to use in targeting Russian troops from drones, Reuters reported on 06 March 2023, citing US lawmakers. According to US Representatives Jason Crow and Adam Smith, who sit on the House Armed Services Committee, Kiev had urged Congress to press President Joe Biden’s administration to approve the deliveries. Ukraine is in particular seeking MK-20 cluster bombs which could be dropped from drones, in addition to 155mm artillery cluster shells Kiev had already requested, the lawmakers told the agency. They said the request came at the February 2023 Munich Security Conference.

"Ukraine hopes that cluster munitions will give it an advantage in heavy battles against Russian forces in the east of Ukraine. Also, that cluster artillery shells will stop the "live wave" attacks that Russia has been organizing for several months in an attempt to capture Bakhmut," Reuters reported.

Soviet Cassette bombs were victorious not only against people, but also against tanks. It’s possible to use a bomb in a tank more than bomblet, such as the small-sized cumulative anti-tank bombs PTAB-2.5-1.5. There were 68 such 1.3-kilogram bombs in the KMB-type cassettes. This greatly increased the effectiveness of bombing and assault strikes on tank columns. In the 1939 Finnish war, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov declared that the USSR did not bomb Finland, but delivered food to the hungry. So the Finns began to call such bombs "Molotov's bread box."

MK-20 cluster munitions are delivered by aircraft and release more than 240 submunitions mid-air. CBU-97 SFW (Sensor Fuzed Weapon) is stacked with a 440-kilogram SUU-66 / B cartridge, ten BLU-108 / B submunitions are stowed in a yak. infrared homing heads. CBU-97 SFW - non-certified aerial bomb, recognized for dropping from small heights. CBU-105 SWF - gliding kerovan aircraft bomb, equipped with a WCMD (Wind Compensated Munitions Dispenser) tail section. WCMD is controlled by the signals of the inertial navigation system, which allows you to drop cluster bombs from high altitudes, changing the risk for aircraft-carriers. The Ukrainian military believes such weapons “have better armor-piercing capability” than assets it has used before.

Ukraine had been asking the US for cluster munitions to fight Russia at least since last autumn, according to Foreign Policy magazine. However, Washington has been reluctant to indulge the requests, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying in December that “according to our own policy, we have concerns about the use of those kinds of munitions.” In 2009, the USA passed a law that prohibits the export of cluster munitions with a failure rate of bombs higher than 1%. US President Joe Biden can lift this ban.

There have been multiple reports of Kiev’s use of Soviet cluster weapons in residential areas, both before and after Moscow sent its troops into the country. Most notably in March 2022, when a Tochka-U missile with a cluster payload killed more than 20 people and injured dozens of others in Donetsk. Kiev denied responsibility for the attack. Human Rights Watch said in May 2022 it could not verify the events. “Ukraine already has a massive problem on its hands, and it’s only magnifying it by introducing this weapon,” Mark Hiznay, a senior researcher in the Arms Division for HRW, told Foreign Policy, commenting on Kiev’s effort to get more cluster weapons.

Critics of the idea say that when dropped, the bombs can maim and kill civilians and have a high failure rate, with unexploded ordnance remaining a hazard for years after a conflict ends. The US is barred from exporting such weapons by law, and there are no indications that the White House would support the move. The weapons are banned in more than 100 countries due to the high risk they present to civilian populations, but not in Russia, Ukraine or the US. Cluster munitions are controversial as they are capable of dispersing a large number of bomblets over wide areas, lying dormant until disturbed. The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) which banned the weapons is signed by more than a hundred countries but it hasn't been adopted universally.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are parties to the CCM, and both have reportedly used their Soviet-made cluster munitions in their armed conflict. In March 2022, a Tochka-U missile with a cluster payload killed more than 20 people and injured dozens more in the city of Donetsk. Moscow blamed Kiev for the attack, but this was denied. International watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) later stated that it could not investigate the incident.