FILE PHOTO: U.S. Navy maintenance crewmen from Navy Attack Squadron 34 move a weapons skid loaded with Mark 20 Rockeye II cluster bombs across the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Persian Gulf during the U.S. response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in this U.S. Navy handout photo from August 1, 1990. PH2 Kettenhoffen/U.S. Navy/U.S. National Archives via REUTERS
Reuters: Ukraine Seeks US Cluster Bombs to Adapt for Drone Use - Lawmakers
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ukraine has broadened a request for controversial cluster bombs from the United States to include a weapon that it wants to cannibalize to drop the anti-armor bomblets it contains on Russian forces from drones, according to two U.S. lawmakers.
Kyiv has urged members of Congress to press the White House to approve sending the weapons but it is by no means certain that the Biden administration will sign off on that. Cluster munitions, banned by more than 120 countries, normally release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area, threatening civilians.
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Update #1: Ukraine Requests US to Provide Cluster Bombs for Its Drones (Kyiv Post)
Update #2: Ukraine is privately asking US for cluster munitions for drone use (Ukrayinska Pravda)
WNU Editor: The U.S., Russia, and Ukraine are not signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (link here).
2 comments:
Ukraine is in a war for its survival. Of course they want cluster bombs. they should also want napalm or fuel air bombs. The problem for them is this. If you are in a fist fight with someone and then you pull a knife. Then your opponent pulls a knife. the potential outcome becomes worse.
If all's they want is to cannibalize the bomblets for their drones, that seems cost effective and smart.
The cluster bombs are banned by 120 countries. There are reasons for that. The other ugly is the use of mines. A nasty, horrible weapon that outlives its masters only to kill indiscriminately in the future.
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