Ukraine has demanded cluster bombs due to the lack of conventional ammunition, consumed during the long counteroffensive launched by Kyiv. It is a weapon of extreme resource that, for the purposes of world public opinion, is unpopular. It seems that the need has made it necessary to ignore humanitarian considerations that do include the international agreement that decreed the suspension of its use in 2010. The United States has already begun to supply them.
“Ukraine intends to replace with cluster bombs a clear disadvantage that it is suffering in the theater of operations, which is its lack of ammunition,” explains Lieutenant General of the Army in the reserve, Francisco Gan Pampols, to La Vanguardia.
This soldier with extensive experience in international operations and command at NATO headquarters believes that the attempts to advance by Ukrainian troops “cannot really be considered an offensive because the corridor has not been cut off.”
The effort of the shock units dependent on Kyiv collides with fierce resistance from the Russian lines, which is precisely causing much more ammunition to be spent than initially anticipated. Added to this is another major imponderable: spare parts for weapons arrive in small quantities and with a long delay in time. That is to say, and as the technicians usually say, the replacement rate is very slow. It is the allied countries, which have recently pledged to sustain the arms effort “for as long as it takes”, which make this shipment of spare parts more or less rapid.
The combination of these two circumstances, such as the high consumption of high-powered ammunition and the low replacement rate, have meant, according to experts in the field such as General Gan, that Ukraine has demanded that the United States send cluster bombs. or cluster bombs, in its Anglo-Saxon nomenclature.
In Dublin, in 2008, an international diplomatic conference was held in which a group of a hundred countries negotiated and approved the Convention on Cluster Munitions by which they agreed to stop using them as of 2010. Neither did the United States. Neither Russia nor Ukraine, among others such as China, North Korea, South Korea or Iran signed it.
Explained in the simplest way possible, cluster bombs would be large piñatas containing other smaller artifacts that are released when the main container bursts. For this reason, secondary explosives are sometimes called “submunitions” or “subordinate bombs.”
“By its very nature, as can be seen, it is not a precision weapon, which can unnecessarily increase its lethality,” explains a military source expert in weapons. “In many cases, their use is similar to that of anti-personnel mines,” says General Gan.
These subordinate bombs or submunitions can lie dormantly scattered on the ground and only detonate by pressure or movement when stepped on or handled. From there, the reserves of its use by dozens of countries start, since they cause damage among the civilian population even long after their launch.
There are also those that explode at a certain distance from the ground. In these cases, its use is very appropriate against masses of advancing infantry and, above all, against groups of armored vehicles, since they mainly attack the upper part of the tanks, the turret, which is always the weakest. It is more than likely that the Ukrainians will allocate part of the claimed cluster bomb stockpile to the United States for this purpose.
There is also another modality that are those cluster bombs that are composed of submunition that explodes when it comes into contact with the ground. In addition, it is worth clarifying that cluster bombs can be launched from the ground by artillery pieces or housed in missiles such as the Himars type that Ukraine already has by international donation, or they can also be launched from warplanes.
“The Russians have more muzzles and more ammunition,” concludes General Gan. Cluster bombs are one resource Kyiv wants to balance efforts with.
Shipments of cluster bombs have already arrived in Ukraine and there are certain reports that they have already been used in combat, specifically on the 12th.
Cluster bombs were already widely used during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which began in 1979. They were then known as “butterfly bombs” because of the appearance of the submunition when released. Later, the United States and Great Britain launched them during the first and second Gulf wars. More recently, Russian or Russian cluster weapons are suspected of being used during the Syrian war.
