Military Utility of Cluster Munitions

An ordinary black leather case with 20 rounds of ammunition, here and here.

There should be a distinction between future production and possible retrofitting of existing munitions.

A functional reliability at this level has to be maintained throughout the entire effective life of the cluster munitions.

To this end, stockpiled cluster munitions have to be tested at regular intervals in order to ensure proper function.

Children are also coerced into acting as porters of ammunition and equipment and, as such, are exposed to the same dangers as combatants.

It usually does not have the concept, doctrine or the order of battle to use information as a substitute for munitions or manpower.

Additionally, over 10,900 caches of munitions had been located and cleared, again a number which has also subsequently increased in the time since.

The UK believes that, as an element of that discussion, it is important to explore the military utility of cluster munitions and their likely future.

With respect to possible preventive measures, the Meetings discussed the feasibility of a comprehensive approach, taking into account all relevant activities related to the life cycle of munitions, such as design, production, storage and use.

These disparities have important financial and technical implications, particularly for the development, production and stockpiling of new munitions, for the retrofitting of existing munitions as well as the decommissioning or destruction of existing stockpiles.

The perceptions of individual countries, past experiences from former conflicts as well as eye witness accounts of the humanitarian implications of the explosive remnants of war should be taken into consideration.

In 1996 the Government had set up the Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme, known as UXO Lao, in order to reduce the number of civilian casualties, and to increase the amount of land available for food production and development.

The type of EO, its principles of operation, net explosive quantity and designed terminal effects will all contribute to the consequence of the inadvertent initiation of the EO.

To this end it is desirable to gather empirical data to quantify the known reliability of EO in service, in particular its likelihood of generating a significant humanitarian impact if it fails to function as designed.

Although the initial contract for ammunition and subsequent negotiations for the vehicles were with Ordan Ltd., the transportation documents for these vehicles recorded Elite Africa Ltd., another Chekroun company.

However the discussion also made clear that the terms of reference for possible preventive measures should be the life cycle cost of munitions, which include among others development and procurement costs as well as the storage and reliability testing costs.

PRCS recorded a total of 3,663 deaths since the second intifada and 7,757 and 6,482 Palestinians injured by live ammunition and rubber or plastic bullets, respectively.

Additionally, there are many examples of where self destruction mechanisms have been included in munitions (for example the Raufoss 25mm self destruct trace round) demonstrating the technical and economic feasibility of this design feature.