re: "We never hear the usage context details of any of these cluster bomb injury claims. Until I hear specific details of cluster bombing of civilians, I for one have to say, I don't believe one word of it."
Perhaps I misunderstood your comment, but the cluster bomb problem is not intentional usage w/r/t civilians. The problem is that only 95% of the bomblets actually explode. Thus, years after the conflict, a kid playing in a field picks up what looks like a curious toy... fas.org
"Submunition function reliability requirement is no less than 95 percent. With a 95 percent submunition
function reliability, one CBU-58 (with 650 submunitions) could produce up to 38 unexploded
submunitions. A typical B-52 dropping a full load of 45 CBU-58/CBU-71, each containing 650
submunitions, could produce an average of some 1700 unexploded sub-munitions. The numbers of
submunitions that fail to properly function and the submunitions’ dispersion determine the actual
density of the hazard area.
Studies that show 40 percent of the duds on the ground are hazardous and for each encounter with an
unexploded submunition there is a 13 percent probability of detonation. Thus, even though an
unexploded submunition is run over, kicked, stepped on, or otherwise disturbed, and did not detonate,
it is not safe. Handling the unexploded submunition may eventually result in arming and subsequent
detonation."
fas.org |
