The United States has made extensive use of cluster munitions, including in:
- Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam between 1965 and 1975;
- Grenada and Lebanon in 1983;
- Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia in 1991;
- Yugoslavia (including Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo) in 1999;
- Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002; and
- Iraq in 2003.
The United States has exported cluster munitions to at least 28 other nations.
- Recipient states include: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Denmark, France, Greece, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
- Congress passed and President George W. Bush enacted on December 26, 2008 a moratorium (effective until September 30, 2008) on the export of cluster munitions with a submunition dud rate of more than 1 percent.
Production and Stockpiling
- In 2001, then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen issued a policy memorandum stating that all submunitions reaching a production decision in fiscal year (FY) 2005 and beyond would have a dud rate of less than 1 percent. In other words, submunitions that reach “full rate production,” i.e. production for use in combat, during or after the first quarter of FY 2005 must meet the new standard.
- A report by the Department of Defense to Congress in October 2004 detailed a stockpile of 5.5 million cluster munitions containing about 728.5 million submunitions. In 1994, the stockpile consisted of 8.9 million cluster munitions containing nearly 1 billion submunitions.
- According to the 2004 Pentagon report: “Cannon and rocket artillery cluster munitions comprise over 80% of Army fire support capability,” and they “comprise the bulk of the Marine Corps artillery munitions.”
Of the 728 million submunitions, only 30,990 have self-destruct devices (.00004 percent).
The United States stockpiles the following types of cluster munitions:
AGM-154A JSOW missile
ATACMS missile
CBU-87 CEM bomb
CBU-97 SFW bomb
CBU-99 Rockeye bomb
CBU-103 CEM bomb
CBU-105 SFW bomb
M26/M26A1 MLRS rocket
M261 Hydra MPSM rocket
M30 GMLRS rocket
M483A1 DPICM projectile
M864/M864A1 DPICM projectile
M898 SADARM projectile
M915 DPICM projectile
M916 DPICM projectile
Mk.-20 Rockeye bomb
RGM/UGM-109D TLAM missile