The United States plans to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help it battle Russian forces.
A top Pentagon official said that the U.S. would provide Ukraine with
“hundreds of thousands” of rounds of controversial cluster munitions
known as Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICMs)
The move will likely see opposition from human
rights groups but would be a potent new addition to Ukraine's arsenal.
It will likely be part of a $800 million aid package that also includes 32 more
Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 32 more Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers,
as well as a range of other weapons and munitions.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes how American cluster munitions could enable Ukraine
break through Russian defenses ? Let's get into the details.
A dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) is an artillery or
surface-to-surface missile warhead designed to burst into submunitions
at an optimum altitude and distance from the desired target for dense area coverage.
The unguided submunitions within the DPICM munitions share a resemblance in size and
weight to a typical hand grenade. However, to aid in stabilization during descent,
each submunition is equipped with a tassel-like piece of cloth at the top.
The submunitions use both shaped charges for the anti-armor role and fragmentation
for the antipersonnel role, hence the nomenclature "dual-purpose."
Some submunitions may be designed for delayed reaction or mobility denial (mines).
The air-to-surface variety of this kind of munition is better known as a cluster bomb.
They are banned by more than 100 countries under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The U.S. has an array of these. This included shells for 105mm,
155mm, and 203mm howitzers, as well as 227mm artillery rockets that can be fired
from the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and M142 High Mobility
Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers. Some versions of the Army Tactical Missile
System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missile also had DPICM-filled warheads.
As per reports, primarily the aid package to Ukraine will have 155mm DPICM rounds.
The coverage of a target area by a DPICM munition can vary significantly depending on the specific
type and method of deployment. For instance, a single M26 227mm artillery rocket carrying
644 M77 DPICM submunitions has the capacity to distribute these submunitions across a
circular-shaped area of approximately 656 feet (200 meters) in diameter.
This corresponds to an area of nearly 50,000 square feet. It's important to note that the
affected area can be influenced by factors such as dispersal height and other dynamic elements.
Cluster munitions are so controversial since, in the past, many of the submunitions have
failed to explode, thus becoming a threat to civilians during and after a conflict.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Dr. Colin H. Kahl has provided insights regarding this.
The counteroffensive, now into its second month, has been “hard sledding, because the Russians had
six months to dig in,” he told reporters, “And so those defensive belts that the Russians have
put in place in the east in the south are hard. They'd be hard for any military to function.”
As a result, “we want to make sure that the Ukrainians have sufficient artillery to keep
them in the fight in the context of the current counteroffensive,” he said. “And because things
are going a little slower than some had hoped, there are very high expenditures of artillery.”
Kahl explained that DPICMs are being provided for two main reasons.
1. The U.S. has a large stock of them, and giving some to Ukraine won’t have the same effect on
supplies as the donation of 155mm unitary rounds. Viewers may note that the U.S. alone has donated
more than 2 million of those to Ukraine. 2. Since individual submunitions or bomblets
scatter over a wide area, it will useful against Russian fortification, especially trenches.
He said, “I think they will help in some of these security belts that the Ukrainians are pushing
against - some of the dug-in formations that that the Russians have. I think they will also be
useful for troop concentrations and concentrations of armored vehicles and lighter-skinned vehicles.”
In an interview with CNN, President Biden said it was a "very difficult decision"
and that it "took me a while to be convinced to do it." But he said Ukraine's dwindling
ammunition supply tipped the scale in favor of providing the cluster bombs.
"The main thing is they either have the weapons to stop the Russians
now — keep them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive through these
areas — or they don't. And I think they needed them," Mr. Biden said.
Kahl said the U.S. is providing newer DPICMs that have a failure or dud rate of less than 2.35%.
“Compare that to Russia, which has been using closed cluster munitions across Ukraine,
with dud rates of between 30% and 40%. During the first year of the conflict alone,
Russia fired cluster munitions deployed from a range of weapon
systems and likely expended tens of millions of submunitions or bomblets across Ukraine.”
Kahl said that the 2.35% dud rate figure was “demonstrated through five comprehensive
tests conducted by the Department of Defense between 1998 and 2020.”
He didn’t provide copies of those tests since they are currently classified.
Low dud-rate munitions will mean that there will be lessers chances
of an unintended civilian casualty in the future.
While U.S. law prohibits providing cluster munitions with more than a
1% dud rate, a president can waive that restriction, as Biden has, said Kahl.
Not only this, the usage of the cluster munition comes with riders.
Kahl said, “The Ukrainian government has offered us assurances in writing on the
responsible use of DPICMs, including that they will not use the rounds in civilian
populated urban environments and that they will record where they use these rounds.”
He also stated that in addition to providing the rounds themselves,
the U.S. will train, coach, and mentor the Ukrainians on how to best use them.
While acknowledging the DPICMs do present a risk to Ukrainian troops,
Kahl said that the greater concern “is that they wander into a Russian minefield,
or areas where the Russians have expended weapons with a much higher dud rate.”
DPICMs, however, are no “silver bullet,” noted Kahl, adding that they will join Ukraine’s stable
of other donated munitions like unitary high explosive rounds, M982 Excalibur guided rounds,
and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rounds for U.S.-donated HIMARS. “No one thing is
gonna make a difference, but I think this gives them an extra arrow in their quiver."
He noted that sending DPICMs to Ukraine would send a message to
the Russians that “the Ukrainians are going to stay in the game.”
Kahl explained this very crucial aspect, he said, because “Vladimir Putin has a theory
of victory. His theory of victory is that he will outlast everybody. He’ll outlast
the Ukrainians. He’ll outlast the United States. He’ll outlast the Europeans. He’ll
outlast the international community. He will simply brute-force his way through.
Having failed achieving a lightning victory, he's now going to play a long game. That's
why President Biden has been clear that we're going to be with Ukraine as long as it takes.”
As evident, the U.S is taking a calculated risk as
it moves forward with the delivery of cluster ammunition to Ukraine.