Background Briefing

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Summary

The United States Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2005 budget, which covers October 2004 to September 2005, includes several requests for procuring cluster munitions or their subparts.  The Army, Marines, Air Force, and Navy all seek funding for variations of these weapons. 

In Iraq, the United States used more than 10,782 cluster munitions, containing at least 1.8 million submunitions.  These weapons killed or injured more than 1,000 civilians.  No other weapon used by the Coalition caused more civilian casualties.1  In light of this humanitarian harm, the budget requests related to these weapons must be closely scrutinized.2  Cluster munitions pose an immediate danger to civilians during attacks, especially in populated areas, because they are inaccurate and have a wide dispersal pattern.  They also endanger civilians long after the conflict due to the high number of submunition duds that do not explode on impact and become de facto landmines.

Human Rights Watch recommends that Congress deny funding for several cluster weapons and place conditions on procurement of others.  The Department of Defense should provide additional information for other requests so that Congress can make informed decisions.  Congress should not fund the requests for procurement in FY 2005 of:

  • ground-launched Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rockets with old Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) submunitions;

  • helicopter-launched Hydra rockets with old M73 submunitions;

  • air-launched Joint Standoff Weapons (JSOWs) with old BLU-97 submunitions;

  • Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers (WCMDs) for air-launched CBU-103 cluster bombs with old BLU-97 submunitions. 

Procurement of the GMLRS rockets, Hydra rockets, and JSOWs would appear to violate the January 2001 DoD policy that all submunitions produced in FY 2005 and beyond should have a dud rate, i.e. the percentage of submunitions that does not explode on impact as designed, of less than one percent (see below).  Congress should, in addition, require the U.S. military to release more specific information regarding use of cluster munitions in Iraq.

Human Rights Watch also recommends that the United States should:

  • either destroy or retrofit with self-destruct devices all submunitions for artillery- and rocket-launched DPICMs;

  • continue to develop and employ better guidance systems to increase the accuracy of cluster munitions;

  • prohibit the use in or near populated areas of all non-precision-guided submunitions, including those with self-destruct devices.

    Most of the Pentagon’s requests in the FY 2005 budget call for retrofitting of old technology or procurement of newer technology, such as guidance systems or unitary warhead alternatives.  While designed to increase their military effectiveness, the modernization of the U.S. cluster munition arsenal has the potential to reduce the negative humanitarian impact of these weapons.  The changes are far from a panacea, however.  A large stockpile of unreliable and inaccurate cluster munitions remains, new technology must be tested and evaluated, and targeting changes must accompany technological improvements.


    [1] For information on the use of cluster munitions in Iraq, see Human Rights Watch, Off Target: The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2003).

    [2] See Links to Detailed Budget Materials at http://www.dod.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2005/index.html.


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