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What Is Cluster Munition The US Is Sending To Ukraine As It Struggles Against The Dug-In Russian Army?..

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Joe Biden Administration is planning to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, and will make a decision 20230710. What are the cluster munitions the US is supplying Ukraine with and why are they so controversial?..

.The United States has confirmed it will supply cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new military aid package.

CNN first reported last week that US President Joe Biden’s administration was strongly considering approving the transfer of the controversial weapons to Ukraine, whose forces have been struggling to make major gains in a weeks-long counteroffensive.

Here’s what you need to know about the weapons – and why they are controversial.

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What is a cluster munition?

Cluster munitions, also called cluster bombs, are canisters that carry tens to hundreds of smaller bomblets, also known as submunitions. The canisters can be dropped from aircraft, launched from missiles or fired from artillery, naval guns or rocket launchers.

The canisters break open at a prescribed height, depending upon the area of the intended target, and the bomblets inside spread out over that area. They are fused by a timer to explode closer to or on the ground, spreading shrapnel that is designed to kill troops or take out armored vehicles such as tanks.

A Pentagon spokesman said the Biden administration was considering sending DPICMs to Ukraine, but only those that had a failure rate lower than 2.35%.

The U.S. military believes cluster munitions would be useful for Ukraine, a senior Pentagon official said in June, but they had not been approved for Kyiv yet because of congressional restrictions and concerns among allies.

The U.S. Army is currently spending more than $6 million a year to decommission 155 millimeter cluster artillery shells and other older munitions, according to budget documents. Sending DCIPMs would ease a drain on standard 155 millimeter shells that Washington has been shipping to Kyiv in massive quantities..

US is supplying Ukraine with cluster munitions. Why are they so controversial?.Russia-Ukraine War: The United States announced that it will provide cluster munitions to Ukraine for the first time.

The White House announced that it is sending cluster munitions to Ukraine amid Russia war as part of a new military aid package after months of debate within the Joe Biden administration about whether to provide Kyiv with the controversial weapons that have been banned by over 100 countries including key US allies

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What type of cluster bomb is the US said to be giving to Ukraine?

The US has a stockpile of cluster munitions known as DPICMs, or dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, that it no longer uses after phasing them out in 2016.

According to an article on the US Army’s eArmor website, the DPICMs Washington will give to Kyiv are fired from 155mm howitzers, with each canister carrying 88 bomblets. Each bomblet has a lethal range of about 10 square meters, so a single canister can cover an area up to 30,000 square meters (about 7.5 acres), depending upon the height it releases the bomblets.

The bomblets in a DPICM have shaped charges that, when striking a tank or armored vehicle, “create a metallic jet that perforates metallic armor,” the article says, adding that it can take 10 or more bomblets to destroy an armored vehicle, but it may take only one to disable the armored vehicle’s weapons or render it immobile.

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美國總統（Joe Biden）表示,這些集束彈藥是作為過渡期使用,他說「這是一場與彈藥有關的戰爭。他們（烏克蘭）的彈藥即將耗盡,而我們(美國)的彈藥也已經不多了,所以我最終接受了國防部的建議,這不是永久的,而是批准這個過渡期,直到美國能夠生產更多大口徑的 155 毫米砲彈給烏克蘭使用。」? .

國際軍事戰略觀察家表示,美國自從越南戰爭,伊拉克戰爭,阿富汗戰爭,敘利亞戰爭,以來都有使用集束炸彈攻擊轟炸對方的軍民,造成大量的傷亡但是美國否認?.另一方面美國極為可能性提前結束俄烏戰爭? 孤注一擲用來作為最後與俄羅斯的總決戰反正死亡敵是烏克蘭以及俄羅斯的阿兵哥及老百姓,俄烏戰爭遊戲最終結果俄羅斯付出慘重代價也就是說勝利者.

美國,俄羅斯和烏克蘭都尚未簽署國際「集束彈藥公約」（Convention on Cluster Munitions）,公約內容禁止生產,儲備,使用和轉移這種武器。

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集束彈是1899年《海牙公約》中明文禁止使用的「極度殘酷」的武器,它可釋放數十甚至數百個小炸彈,在大範圍造成巨大的殺傷力,但也可能在投放時無法正常引爆,在衝突結束多年後,持續威脅民眾性命。英國,法國,德國等百多個國家已簽定《集束彈公約》,將此類彈藥定為非法，,美,俄,中,等國家均未簽署。

被禁止的武器除集束炸彈外還有被形容是「反人類」的白磷彈。在砲彈中裝入白磷,爆炸後與氧氣接觸,燃燒後溫度可達 1000度至1500度左右,一旦落到人的身體上,由於高度的黏性,幾乎無法甩掉,高溫會燒過人體的肌肉,脂肪,直到燒穿骨頭。1980年通過的《聯合國常規武器公約》中已經將白磷彈列為違禁武器,不允許在戰爭中使用。有80多個國家簽署了該項公約。.

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集束彈藥，又稱集束彈、子母彈，是將多個較細小的炸彈集合成一枚空用炸彈、炮彈或導彈彈頭的特種彈藥，當投射到目標區域時，彈體內的小炸彈便會散開，可以同時攻擊多個目標^[，相比起傳統炸彈，集束彈藥能夠大幅增加彈藥的涵蓋面積及殺傷範圍，較少的投射次數便能摧毀更多目標，亦可用於對機場及道路進行大面積的破壞，阻礙敵軍機場及交通運輸的運作。由於集束彈藥單次散布的小炸彈數量大及範圍廣，存在未爆彈（啞彈）的問題，可能對平民有潛在危害，所以在國際上受到爭議，2008年制定的《集束彈藥公約》要求締約國禁止使用及轉移集束彈藥^2]，有過百個國家簽署，但作爲全球主要軍事強權的中、美、俄皆未有簽署公約^]，而該公約屬於自願性的宣言，由於未有國際法強制全球所有國家棄用，目前集束彈藥的管制狀態是使用本身不違反國際法，但針對平民使用集束彈藥則可能會觸犯國際法^[]。

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A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles. Other cluster munitions are designed to destroy runways or electric power transmission lines.

Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose risks to civilians both during attacks and afterwards. Unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians and/or unintended targets long after a conflict has ended, and are costly to locate and remove. This failure rate ranges from 2 percent to 40 percent or more.

Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin, Ireland, in May 2008. The Convention entered into force and became binding international law upon ratifying states on 1 August 2010, six months after being ratified by 30 states.^[] As of 10 February 2022, a total of 123 states have joined the Convention, as 110 states parties and 13 signatories.^{]............}...........................................................................................................................................