Steel Rain

An analysis of Cluster Bomb use by the
US in four recent campaigns

by Marc W. Herold
Departments of Economics and Women's Studies
Whittemore School of Business & Economics
University of New Hampshire

POSTED JUNE 16, 2003 --

Terrorized Iraqi troops in 1991 called exploding US cluster bombs 'steel rain.'¹ Such cluster munitions can either be dropped from aircraft or fired inside artillery shells. The 'parent' bomb breaks apart as it nears the ground, spewing forth sub-munitions [or, bomblets]. The widely-used CBU-87 1,000 pound cluster bomb leaves a footprint of 458 meters; its wind-corrected version, the CBU-103, has a footprint of 183 meters. The footprint is measured by the area covered by bomblets. Each bomblet [BLU-107] in the CBU-87 injures people in a 152 meter radius. The bomblets drift down to earth with a small parachute. Though most explode upon impact, many do not. The reported 'dud rate' varies from eight – 22 percent.

Another cluster bomb, the CBU-105, is a 1,000 pound wind-corrected version that was first used on April 2, 2003, when a B-52 dropped six of them on "an Iraqi tank column heading south out of Baghdad." The CBU-105 contains 40 'SADARM' bomblets. Incredibly, each has its own radar, and has a killing footprint of 150x360 meters.

The following Table presents a summary of cluster bombs used in four of the seven military campaigns where the US has employed this weapon. I have omitted Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. The impact that emerges is that in Kosovo, Afghanistan², and the recent Iraq campaign, similar amounts of cluster bombs have been dropped, leaving a deadly legacy of about 30-35,000 unexploded bomblets in each country’s fields and neighborhoods.

Table.

Air-delivered* Cluster Munitions in Recent Anglo-American Military Campaigns

Campaign	Weapon	Bomblets per bomb	Cluster Bombs dropped	Bomblets delivered	Dud rate range	UXO bomblets
Gulf War, 1991	CBU-87	202	61-80,000	24-30 million	5-8%	1.2-1.5 million
	CBU-89	99
	Rockeye Mark 20	247
NATO/Kosovo, 1998	RBL-755	147	~1,700	290,000	8-12%	~35,000
	CBU-87	202
	CBU-97	10
Afghanistan, 2001-2	CBU-87	202	1,210	244,000	10-22% [est. 12%]	~30,000
	CBU-103	202
	CBU-89?	99
	CBU-99 Mark 20	247
	AGM-154	145
IRAQ II, 2003	CBU-87	202	1,461	270,411	10-15% [est. 12%]	32,500
	CBU-99	247
	CBU-103	202
	CBU-105	40
	CBU-107	**
	AGM-154	145

Note: The first row for each campaign contains the cumulative totals for all cluster munitions.

* Omits ground-launched cluster munitions, as for example: the Multiple-Land-Rocket System [MRLS] which contains 12 M26 missiles [each carrying 644 cluster bomblets]; The Army Tactical Missile System [ATACMS] with a surface-to-surface missile carrying 950 bomblets; The British L20 artillery shell [containing 49 bomblets], etc.

** The CBU-107 first used in Iraq in 2003, emits a high-speed volley of more than 3,000 metal arrows, projected from a single cannister. Two were used in Iraq.

Sources: Available from the author upon request.

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Footnotes

1. Peter Walker, "Cluster Bombs Too Effective for Military To Do Without: Expert," Agence France-Presse [April 3, 2003]

2. For details on cluster bombs in Afghanistan, see my "Above the Law and Below Morality: Data on 11 Weeks of U.S. Cluster Bombing of Afghanistan".