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The Inhumane Weapons Conference took place in Geneva this week and experts from different countries discussed the problems related to the usage of cluster munitions again just like they have for past two years. Many representatives from more than 100 countries agreed to an additional protocol to Convention for the non-lethal weapons that will ban the manufacturing, use, transportation, and storage of cluster munitions for humanitarian reasons. However, by the end of conference in May 2008 in Dublin, many owners and main manufacturers of the largest arsenals of cluster munitions such as USA, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, India, and China did not agree to the treaty.

The main contradiction which makes the treaty document questionable is the absence of a clear definition of what exactly is considered to be cluster munitions. For example, according to the wide interpretation of this term, warplanes that carry hundreds of bombs and MRLS are also included. Therefore, attempts from certain Western countries to define cluster munitions on the basis of any explicit characteristic are considered a dirty deception to other countries like Russia.

FOREIGN STANDARDS

A few days before the beginning of the present conference, a Tbilisi representative in Geneva accused the Russian military men of using cluster munitions and other types of weapons of mass destruction against civilians of Georgia. However, no strong evidence of the fact supported this claim although the munitions type known as cluster bomb RBK-250 was precisely specified. After all, it is well known to the Georgian military men, that the RBK-250 cluster munitions are included in the standard armament of regular arms in the Russian attack aircraft Su-25 and Mi-24 attack helicopters and they are also available in the Georgian army. Meanwhile, the Joint Staff of Armed forces of the Russian Federation has officially declared that Russia did not apply cluster aerial bombs at all during the military operation called, “Compulsory peace in Georgia”. Suddenly, something unexpected happened in the first working day of the Inhumane weapon Conference when Tbilisi admitted to the international human rights organization known as the “Human Rights Watch” that its army applied cluster bombs during the South Ossetia conflict. Did the aggressive accuser really decided to confess at last? Alas, the Georgian military department began to insist on the facts that they had only shot exclusively on Russian armor which was moving forward through the Roksky tunnel and had never used weapons against civilians and, more importantly, that they had used Israeli cluster bombs M85.

After that, the general director of SPRE “Bazalt”, Vladimir Korenkov, who participated in many debates at the Conference on the inhumane weapon as a member of the Russian delegation, said it is now important for the Georgians to show that they did not apply the old munitions of Russian production which were saved in Georgia from the Soviet period. Then, even after the Georgians totally cut a poor figure, they continued to play into the hands of the USA which agrees that cluster munitions should not be forbidden but to apply certain international standards for them instead based on their usage, application, and fabrication methods required for similar munitions.

What will that mean to Russia? First of all, they will try to impose on us a technical policy of munitions based on foreign standards. If this policy becomes mandatory, the cluster bombs produced here in Russia will have to be certified under the control of Western partners before we can send them to arsenals, use in the army, or display for sale. Any discrepancy to their standards will lead to an exclusion of the practical use of our production. There will also be the concern of our old munitions reserves which basically cannot be altered or modernized. Therefore, we will be suggested to disarm in this class of arms completely. Furthermore, it will be necessary to buy foreign manufacturing components because our own unique technologies do not coincide with American ones. All of this is absurd!

FOUR SORE SPOTS

What do the offered standards really consist of? First of all, they want to introduce certain levels of reliability of the cluster munitions when they are used. However, Vladimir Korenkov says that these levels are unsupported and that the opinion about the danger of cluster weapons is based on the analysis of the practiced use of out-of-date, 30-50 year old munitions samples like the notorious pellet bombs in Vietnam. Also, the so-called humanitarian anxiety concerning cluster munitions do not often consider modern designs, military missions, and the order of usage as well as the ideology concerning the development of such class of arms in general.

The people who want to exaggerate the problems of munitions usually put forward a number of issues.

The first issue is that sub-munitions of cluster munitions scatter over large distances. But a separate sub-munition released from a cluster bomb creates a destruction zone considerably less than unitary munitions. Just the same, the actual danger zone of all cluster munitions is practically equal to the area as unitary munitions that have same total weight. This is because the large sub-munitions fragments disperse in a radius of 1000-1500 meters and surpass the size of the target area by 3 to 5 times. Therefore, the application of cluster munitions compared to monoblock ones reduces the danger for objects located out of the coverage zone.

The second issue is that it is much more dangerous to destroy un-exploded sub-munitions than usual bombs. As a rule, most sub-munitions fragments remain on the surface compared to monoblock ammunition of the same sizes that go beneath the surface down to 1–10 meters. Which arsenal is easier to detect how to destroy? Destroying non-exploded sub-munitions is more possible because they are on surface and easier to find. For large monoblock bombs buried deep, they are difficult to find and destroy. Although, if monoblock munitions are found and taken out to a special place of destruction, the danger during the transportation of them is much lower than the transportation of cluster munitions elements. Nonetheless, the danger of destroying unitary ammunition is already high enough because of the greater potential of structural damage due to their large physical size. Therefore, the consequences of eliminating non-authorized functioning of cluster munition as a whole are less dangerous.

The third issue is that there are too many sub-munitions. However, the high efficiency of cluster munitions (see the first issue) reduces their quantity requirements by ten times.

The fourth issue is that the cluster weapon is the least selective because the principle function of the cluster weapon is the reduction of power of each individual element to a minimum level to defeat the object. Of course, this happens only under conditions of a direct hit on the object. The monoblock ammunition is always designed to hit the target even on the worst possible miss by creating excessive damages around the object.

DON’T BLAME THE WEAPON

In short, the quality of modern samples of cluster munitions can be compared to that of the high-precision weapon and this conclusion is confirmed completely when compared to the quality of “Bazalt” produced homing sub-munitions (SPBE-D) that are loaded on the aerial cluster bomb RBK-500U. Despite the fact that these sub-munitions were adopted 20 years ago, their quality has been improved many times and they were designed mainly to destroy tanks.

A cluster loaded with 15 sub-munitions are scattered above the area where enemy’s vehicles concentration. Starting at about 500 m height, they are on accordance with scroll, scanning an area of approximately 0.5 by 0.5 km and then descend using parachutes as soon as the infra-red two-spectral sensor identifies the target by ad hoc algorithm.

As a rule, the command for warhead exploding is sent at a height of 100 meters above earth. Then, a metal piece goes-off towards the earth. This piece is called an impact shot and usually is a kg of copper that travels at a speed of 3km/s just like a meteorite. This piece therefore can penetrate the tank which can not be protected by any explosive-reactive armor.

The RBK-500U can also be fitted for other combat missions. Concrete-piercing high-explosive sub-munitions elements called BETAB-M that can be dispersed from one cluster are capable of creating 10 big opening s in airport landing strips. These elements penetrate the reinforced concrete and blast concrete fragments out unto the surface. There are no fragments from the ammunition and there are usually no causalities produced because the concrete fragments travel at a slow speed and small distance of only two meters.These fragments aren't destructive.

By the way, in case the elements of RBK-500U are aborted for any purpose, there are no dangerous active remnants of war in the area which is the greatest anxiety of the public. All sub-munitions are designed with a self destruct system. This self destruct system was one of the main requirements of the majority of participants at The Inhumane Weapons Conference. The general director of “Bazalt”, the main manufacturer of cluster munitions in Russia said,” We have it and it perfectly works. Our works on the cluster weapon are sufficient in regards to humanitarian concerns.”

Therefore, we confirm that we are against any treaty document which would force us to let others control our arsenals like the NATO countries. It is the viewpoint of Russia that we consider changing the document at a better time and place that will reflect our best policies of production instead of in the way it is currently offered. To put it differently, do not blame munitions because of the mistakes and wrong decisions people make in weapon control.

translated by M. Kildibekova