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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.
