In 1991 I was a fire support officer for a cavalry troop in Desert Strom. As I observed firsthand in 1991, the effects during combat can be devastating. The rest of the bomblets are small point-detonating shape charges that will explode on impact, sending molten steel into the vulnerable thin armor of tanks and armored personnel carriers. Some of these munitions will be fused to detonate above the ground, sending lethal shards of steel raining on troops or light-skinned vehicles. The most common cluster bomb is the dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) for the 155mm howitzers.Ī 155mm DPICM round, like its MLRS cousin, will fly over the target and then release 88 bomblets. These small hand-sized bombs would drop over the target and spread out over a considerable distance, showering everything in the area with powerful explosions. An MLRS launcher carries 12 rockets at any given moment, and some of the warheads – like the M77 cluster munitions variant – carried 644 sub-munitions, or bomblets. Army in the mid-1980s was as a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) crewman. It is important to understand what this ammunition can and can’t do. ![]() I can confirm from personal experience that cluster munitions are indeed quite powerful, but also that by themselves they will not tilt the balance of power in the war towards Ukraine. Proponents of this move claim this class of bombs is highly effective and could provide a game changer in the war for Kyiv. The Biden Administration has decided to authorize the release of cluster munitions to Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia.
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