CRS – Cluster Munitions: Background and Issues for Congress

Documents are via FAS: Cluster Munitions: Background and Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service, December 13, 2017 Summary – Cluster munitions are air-dropped or ground-launched weapons that release a number of smaller submunitions intended to kill enemy personnel or destroy vehicles. Cluster munitions were developed in World War II and are part of many nations’ weapons stockpiles. Cluster munitions have been used frequently in combat, including the early phases of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cluster munitions have been highly criticized internationally for causing a significant number of civilian deaths, and efforts have been undertaken to ban and regulate their use. The Department of Defense (DOD) continues to view cluster munitions as a military necessity but in 2008instituted a policy to reduce the failure rate of cluster munitions to 1% or less after2018. In November 2017, a new DOD policy was issued that essentially reversed the…

Read more detail on Recent Technology posts –

This entry was posted in Technology & Cyberlaw and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply