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US Policy |
U.S. Policy on Cluster Minitions The United States has the largest stockpile of cluster munitions in the world and is a major user, exporter, and producer of the weapon. While efforts to restrain the use and trade of cluster munitions are under discussion in the Congress, there is no domestic law on the books specifically regulating cluster munitions. Additionally, the United States has thus far failed to engage in an international process to develop a treaty prohibiting the use, trade and stockpiling of cluster munitions that pose unacceptable harm to civilians. KEY INFORMATION Use: The United States used cluster munitions in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) in the 1960s and 1970s, Persian Gulf (Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia) in 1991, Yugoslavia (including Kosovo) in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, and Iraq in 2003. Transfer: The U.S. has transferred cluster munitions to at least 27 countries, including: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom. The U.S. has imported cluster munitions from Germany, Israel, Sweden and France.1 Stockpile: An October 2004 Pentagon report to Congress states that the U.S. has a stockpile of 5.5 million cluster munitions containing about 728.5 million submunitions. However this report does not appear as a full accounting of cluster munitions available to U.S. forces because it does not include War Reserve Stocks for Allies (WRSA). Human Rights Watch estimates that the U.S. inventory, including WRSA, totals 1 billion submunitions. In 2001, then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen issued a policy memorandum stating that all new submunitions in fiscal year 2005 and beyond would have a dud rate of less than 1 percent or must receive a waiver. This policy applies to new submunitions only, leaving the existing stockpile of about 1 billion submunitions exempt from the 99 percent reliability standard. Of the 728.5 million acknowledged submunitions, only 30,990 have self-destruct devices (.00004 percent). The Pentagon report cites failure rates of 2 percent to 6 percent for most of the submunitions. However, these numbers are disputed by both organizations involved in unexploded ordnance clearance in and earlier Pentagon reports. Even using the report’s very conservative dud rates, however, Human Rights Watch estimates that the current submunition inventory, if employed, would leave behind more than 27 million hazardous duds.2 Production: Aerojet, Alliant TechSystems, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Textron Defense Systems are all associated with the current production of cluster munitions and their submunitions.3 1Cluster Munitions Coalition. http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/info.asp?c=14&id=36 2 Human Rights Watch. “Survey of Cluster Munition Policy and Practice” February 2007. 3 Ibid.
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