In 2008, more than 100 nations signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a treaty that “prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions.”
The United States did not accede to the convention. Neither did Ukraine nor Russia, both of whom are using these weapons in their seemingly forever war.
A cluster munition is a weapon that keeps on killing long after its 72 submunitions, or bomblets, are shot in a shell from a 155 mm artillery weapon. Upon explosion in the air, they can litter an area the size of several football fields. If that wasn’t horrible enough, these submunitions have, according to various government estimates, a “dud,” or unexploded rate, of 2.35% to 6%. That means that every time a cluster bomb is employed, two to four of those 72 bomblets do not explode upon impact.
