Turkey Supplies Ukraine With Deadly Cluster Bombs

Turkey began sending Ukraine a form of US-designed, artillery-fired cluster bomb in late 2022 after months of Kyiv pleading with the US for the munitions, current and former US and European officials familiar with the decision told Foreign Policy, giving Kyiv a powerful—but controversial—weapon to destroy Russian tanks and kill troops on the battlefield, Jack Detch and Robbie Gramer reported.

Photo Insert: The weapons are designed to destroy tanks by bursting into smaller submunitions, which can linger on the battlefield for years if they do not immediately explode. Each round scatters about 88 bomblets.

The NATO ally began sending the first batches of so-called dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICMs) in November 2022, which were made during the Cold War era under a co-production agreement with the US.

The weapons are designed to destroy tanks by bursting into smaller submunitions, which can linger on the battlefield for years if they do not immediately explode. Each round scatters about 88 bomblets. The US is barred from exporting DPICMs under US law.

Russia has used cluster bombs against Ukraine since the first day of the invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“For every fourth [artillery] round, you’re killing somebody. I think DPICM is going to show probably 20 times that,” said Dan Rice, president of Thayer Leadership, an executive leadership development organization, who is also serving as an advisor to Ukraine’s military chief.

“So for each round you fire, you’ll have 10 dead Russians. You’re going to see the efficiency of DPICM and effectiveness, which will also affect Russian morale.”

The US military has not used cluster munitions in combat since its invasion of Iraq in 2003, except for a single instance in Yemen more than a decade ago, and it has not exported the weapons since 2015.

Russia, which is also not a signatory to the United Nations cluster munitions convention, has been a prolific user of the weapons since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February: Preliminary data cited by Human Rights Watch showed at least 689 civilian casualties from cluster munition attacks in Ukraine from February to July 2022.

Ukrainian forces have used cluster munition rockets on at least two occasions.

The DPICM, which can be fired from standard artillery pieces, is about five to 10 times more lethal than the standard high-explosive rounds that the US has already sent to Ukraine. Citing wear and tear on artillery batteries, Ukraine has also asked for so-called BONUS cluster rounds from Sweden and small-diameter bombs that can be launched by HIMARS, which the US has agreed to send but has not yet provided.

The US Defense Department has about 3 million DPICM rounds in its stocks, dating back to the end of the Cold War.

Under plans envisioned by Ukrainian military advisors, DPICMs would be used against known Russian military targets, confirmed by drones, and cleaned up by unexploded ordnance teams after they are fired but before any areas are reopened to civilians.

Reports also suggested that a far more deadly US cluster bomb that deploys thousands of tungsten balls, may have also been received by Ukraine.

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