Why is the West so worried about cluster munitions?
So, the United States made a difficult decision to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine. Motivation just pumps up - until they set up an additional release of 155-mm artillery shells, the allies will have to be content with cluster ones.
There was a groan on our TV and even on the Internet about how bad this is. And how bad? No, any transfer of modern weapons to our enemies is bad. No need to explain why. So both cluster munitions and conventional artillery shells - this does not bring anything good from the start.
In fact, design bureaus are not an innovation; our dushmans were processed with them back in Afghanistan. And, it should be noted, it is very effective in mountainous terrain. weapon.
The answer is actually very simple and lies on the surface. But for this you just need to take any cluster munition and disassemble it.
Cluster munition, simply put, is a bomb or projectile containing several smaller bombs or projectiles. They are called submunitions. A bomb or launcher is different from the usual ones, but not much.
The main thing is that design bureaus are very dangerous precisely because of their "matryoshka". Yes. They look like nesting dolls, because under the shell they contain a lot of unpleasant things. The most terrible by the results of the application are cluster bombs. The empty form of the bomb can be filled with anything: fragmentation shells, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, you can combine different types.
And the use of such munitions in civilian areas entails heavy losses among civilians, since an unexploded or unexploded submunition becomes like a mine. It is not easy to extract it, usually it explodes when you try to touch it. That is why in the USA cluster submunitions are painted in terribly bright "acid" colors. Which, it seems, should scare away civilians, but, as the practice of Yugoslavia and Afghanistan has shown, they attract the attention of children very well.
But from the point of view of the military, the use of design bureaus is very effective. This is a universal ammunition that covers a very decent area with its elements, hitting both manpower and equipment. Plus, you can cause damage to infrastructure facilities.
And it’s easy to use: from a conventional bomber or fighter capable of carrying such ammunition. Bombs fly in a compartment or on an external sling, and after being dropped, they do not fly vertically down, but with the help of a stabilizing parachute, they practically fly horizontally for some time. And while the horizontal flight lasts, cartridges with ammunition start from the hull.
Given that the fall speed of such a bomb is slowed down by a stabilizing parachute, quite decent accuracy is achieved. Cassettes shoot ammunition that falls where it is needed. Or almost anywhere.
Each mine thrown from a cluster bomb also has a parachute and, as a rule, explodes just above the ground. Due to this, the area of \u3b\u5bdamage is seriously increased. And what does not explode (detonator defects affect), then these XNUMX-XNUMX% become a kind of anti-personnel mines.
In general, it is understandable why attempts were made from time to time to ban design bureaus in the world, precisely because these ammunition perfectly destroyed the civilian population, precisely because they worked on the squares.
1980, then 2008. But until 2013, the Convention, which prohibited the accumulation, transfer and use of CBs, was signed by 113 countries, and even fewer ratified them - 84. And the most interesting thing is that there were countries that did not develop or produce them. Those who believed that this was a completely normal and useful weapon (USA, China, Russia, India, Brazil, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq) did not sign this Convention.
In general, cluster bombs are subject to the general restrictions imposed on weapons of indiscriminate action: a ban on their use in densely populated areas. This is a customary rule that is binding on all states, regardless of their membership in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is clear that no one is particularly eager to fulfill this norm, if only because in today's world the conduct of war is generally devoid of the slightest chivalry. There is just a war going on, and as one of our former experts said, "These civilians always get in the way under the tracks."
Therefore, Korea and Vietnam were absolutely calmly thrown with cluster bombs in the last century, and therefore design bureaus are used in the current one. However, work on the modernization of design bureaus is underway in all producing countries, and these works are mainly aimed precisely at reducing the danger of design bureaus for the civilian population. Much is being done in terms of equipping design bureaus with homing mines that would hit strictly defined targets. Plus, work on small-sized self-liquidators that could neutralize ammunition after the standard detonator failed.
It seems that there was no such hype in the West when shells for howitzers, MLRS, and tactical Haimars were handed over. What's the matter?
The point is in a very simple component: in those same 3-5% of submunitions that will not explode in normal mode. Yes, they are very difficult to disarm, but this is a very good way to identify ammunition. And, accordingly, one of the components of the proxy war.
Since none of the leading world powers is going to abandon the design bureau, and it is difficult for smaller countries to use design bureaus, since rather expensive ammunition requires expensive carriers such as aircraft or large-caliber MLRS.
And the place of the Design Bureau in the information war is quite clear and understandable. The bomb was dropped, the elements scattered, exploded. Part fell to the ground. And here the work of information specialists begins: information is collected about the use of KB, photo and video evidence, accusations of the opposite side about the use of KB against the civilian population begin.
The ricochet also affects the manufacturer of the design bureau. Yes, an artillery shell, Rocket MLRS, mines - there is very little demand for them. They are very poorly identified after they have done their job.
Even with the MLRS, it’s a little easier, the motor parts remain there, especially for large-caliber Smerch and Hurricane types. We are simply silent about tactical missiles of the Tochka U type, there is a complete discrediting of the party that used this product. But an unexploded cluster munition is unpleasant.
First of all, because it is very easy to identify. And it is very easy to tell where and when it was made.
It is clear that the United States will not be responsible for where the Ukrainians will gouge with a cluster bomb. They, in fact, do not care deeply about this, whether Russian military or civilians die. Here the question is different.
Reproaches and "hot investigations" are a normal element of the American political system. The parties are at war with each other without violating certain corridors. But yelling that somewhere civilians are dying from American design bureaus is not considered a betrayal. Indeed, it is not a representative of the ruling party who is directly responsible for the fact that someone, say, on the territory of Ukraine, dropped cluster bombs on a residential area.
They don't give a damn about it in the US. But to use such things for the benefit of the interests of your gang in order to hurt the other gang is normal. There, they use more dirty tricks, and the closer to the elections, the less picky both the Democrats and the Republicans become.
So it's more than simple: while US-made cluster munitions are killing people all over the world, nobody in the States itself cares. Until it's time to capitalize on it. That's when someone will not care about what is happening. But not before.
Therefore, today the Western media indicate their position on this matter. So that later, when the corresponding cassettes are shown to the whole world, along with the corpses of obviously non-military ones, to put forward certain accusations against someone. Guilty, you understand, must be.
But until that moment, design bureaus will be supplied to Kyiv. And the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will send them to our side. And ours, respectively, to answer the same.
We have the 9M55K1, an excellent 9N142 cluster warhead (KG) rocket with self-aiming warheads (SPBE) for the Smerch/Tornado-S MLRS. The cassette warhead carries 5 Motiv-3M SPBEs (9N349), equipped with dual-band infrared coordinators, looking for a target at an angle of 30 °. Each of them is capable of penetrating 30 mm armor at an angle of 100 ° from a height of 70 meters. Perfectly suited for operations against accumulations of military equipment.
There are also bombs like RBC-500U with PTAB-1M, also for destruction tanks and other armored vehicles, both on the march and in disguise in parking lots. This cassette contains 268 PTAB-1M combat elements with armor penetration up to 200 mm. And the improved RBC-500U PTAB has a mass of 520 kg, and carries 352 cumulative elements.
There are, in general, than welcome goodness.
That the US today decided to share part of its XNUMX million cluster munition arsenal is basically a problem for the US going forward. How the Ukrainian military will use the design bureaus transferred to them is a question in another direction.
In fact, one should not expect miraculous results, it is clear that the state aviation The Armed Forces of Ukraine simply will not make it possible to use design bureaus in large quantities from aircraft, therefore, most likely, they will bring artillery shells.
This is a separate topic, fortunately, there are now enough barrels of NATO calibers in Ukraine. According to the magazine owned by the US Department of Defense, which is called "Armor", we are talking about the supply of 155-millimeter caliber shells. Each such artillery shell contains 88 submunitions, and each submunition, in turn, has an expelling charge and a charge of fragments, the radius of which is about 10 meters.
In other words, depending on the dispersion, one such cluster projectile can mow down with fragments the territory of 3-4 football fields. Very unpleasant for the front line, deadly for residential development, especially if the explosion occurred at a height of 15-25 meters.
It is possible that 105-mm shells will also be supplied. They have fewer combat elements, but otherwise they are almost as good as their older comrades.
Will these deliveries become a big problem for the Russian troops? We'll see. Not everything that comes from the other side of the world becomes a "wonder weapon".
There was a groan on our TV and even on the Internet about how bad this is. And how bad? No, any transfer of modern weapons to our enemies is bad. No need to explain why. So both cluster munitions and conventional artillery shells - this does not bring anything good from the start.
What are cluster munitions
In fact, design bureaus are not an innovation; our dushmans were processed with them back in Afghanistan. And, it should be noted, it is very effective in mountainous terrain. weapon.
The answer is actually very simple and lies on the surface. But for this you just need to take any cluster munition and disassemble it.
Cluster munition, simply put, is a bomb or projectile containing several smaller bombs or projectiles. They are called submunitions. A bomb or launcher is different from the usual ones, but not much.
The main thing is that design bureaus are very dangerous precisely because of their "matryoshka". Yes. They look like nesting dolls, because under the shell they contain a lot of unpleasant things. The most terrible by the results of the application are cluster bombs. The empty form of the bomb can be filled with anything: fragmentation shells, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, you can combine different types.
And the use of such munitions in civilian areas entails heavy losses among civilians, since an unexploded or unexploded submunition becomes like a mine. It is not easy to extract it, usually it explodes when you try to touch it. That is why in the USA cluster submunitions are painted in terribly bright "acid" colors. Which, it seems, should scare away civilians, but, as the practice of Yugoslavia and Afghanistan has shown, they attract the attention of children very well.
But from the point of view of the military, the use of design bureaus is very effective. This is a universal ammunition that covers a very decent area with its elements, hitting both manpower and equipment. Plus, you can cause damage to infrastructure facilities.
And it’s easy to use: from a conventional bomber or fighter capable of carrying such ammunition. Bombs fly in a compartment or on an external sling, and after being dropped, they do not fly vertically down, but with the help of a stabilizing parachute, they practically fly horizontally for some time. And while the horizontal flight lasts, cartridges with ammunition start from the hull.
Given that the fall speed of such a bomb is slowed down by a stabilizing parachute, quite decent accuracy is achieved. Cassettes shoot ammunition that falls where it is needed. Or almost anywhere.
Each mine thrown from a cluster bomb also has a parachute and, as a rule, explodes just above the ground. Due to this, the area of \u3b\u5bdamage is seriously increased. And what does not explode (detonator defects affect), then these XNUMX-XNUMX% become a kind of anti-personnel mines.
In general, it is understandable why attempts were made from time to time to ban design bureaus in the world, precisely because these ammunition perfectly destroyed the civilian population, precisely because they worked on the squares.
1980, then 2008. But until 2013, the Convention, which prohibited the accumulation, transfer and use of CBs, was signed by 113 countries, and even fewer ratified them - 84. And the most interesting thing is that there were countries that did not develop or produce them. Those who believed that this was a completely normal and useful weapon (USA, China, Russia, India, Brazil, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq) did not sign this Convention.
In general, cluster bombs are subject to the general restrictions imposed on weapons of indiscriminate action: a ban on their use in densely populated areas. This is a customary rule that is binding on all states, regardless of their membership in the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is clear that no one is particularly eager to fulfill this norm, if only because in today's world the conduct of war is generally devoid of the slightest chivalry. There is just a war going on, and as one of our former experts said, "These civilians always get in the way under the tracks."
Therefore, Korea and Vietnam were absolutely calmly thrown with cluster bombs in the last century, and therefore design bureaus are used in the current one. However, work on the modernization of design bureaus is underway in all producing countries, and these works are mainly aimed precisely at reducing the danger of design bureaus for the civilian population. Much is being done in terms of equipping design bureaus with homing mines that would hit strictly defined targets. Plus, work on small-sized self-liquidators that could neutralize ammunition after the standard detonator failed.
So why is there so much talk about KB?
It seems that there was no such hype in the West when shells for howitzers, MLRS, and tactical Haimars were handed over. What's the matter?
The point is in a very simple component: in those same 3-5% of submunitions that will not explode in normal mode. Yes, they are very difficult to disarm, but this is a very good way to identify ammunition. And, accordingly, one of the components of the proxy war.
Since none of the leading world powers is going to abandon the design bureau, and it is difficult for smaller countries to use design bureaus, since rather expensive ammunition requires expensive carriers such as aircraft or large-caliber MLRS.
And the place of the Design Bureau in the information war is quite clear and understandable. The bomb was dropped, the elements scattered, exploded. Part fell to the ground. And here the work of information specialists begins: information is collected about the use of KB, photo and video evidence, accusations of the opposite side about the use of KB against the civilian population begin.
The ricochet also affects the manufacturer of the design bureau. Yes, an artillery shell, Rocket MLRS, mines - there is very little demand for them. They are very poorly identified after they have done their job.
Even with the MLRS, it’s a little easier, the motor parts remain there, especially for large-caliber Smerch and Hurricane types. We are simply silent about tactical missiles of the Tochka U type, there is a complete discrediting of the party that used this product. But an unexploded cluster munition is unpleasant.
First of all, because it is very easy to identify. And it is very easy to tell where and when it was made.
It is clear that the United States will not be responsible for where the Ukrainians will gouge with a cluster bomb. They, in fact, do not care deeply about this, whether Russian military or civilians die. Here the question is different.
Reproaches and "hot investigations" are a normal element of the American political system. The parties are at war with each other without violating certain corridors. But yelling that somewhere civilians are dying from American design bureaus is not considered a betrayal. Indeed, it is not a representative of the ruling party who is directly responsible for the fact that someone, say, on the territory of Ukraine, dropped cluster bombs on a residential area.
They don't give a damn about it in the US. But to use such things for the benefit of the interests of your gang in order to hurt the other gang is normal. There, they use more dirty tricks, and the closer to the elections, the less picky both the Democrats and the Republicans become.
So it's more than simple: while US-made cluster munitions are killing people all over the world, nobody in the States itself cares. Until it's time to capitalize on it. That's when someone will not care about what is happening. But not before.
Therefore, today the Western media indicate their position on this matter. So that later, when the corresponding cassettes are shown to the whole world, along with the corpses of obviously non-military ones, to put forward certain accusations against someone. Guilty, you understand, must be.
But until that moment, design bureaus will be supplied to Kyiv. And the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will send them to our side. And ours, respectively, to answer the same.
We have the 9M55K1, an excellent 9N142 cluster warhead (KG) rocket with self-aiming warheads (SPBE) for the Smerch/Tornado-S MLRS. The cassette warhead carries 5 Motiv-3M SPBEs (9N349), equipped with dual-band infrared coordinators, looking for a target at an angle of 30 °. Each of them is capable of penetrating 30 mm armor at an angle of 100 ° from a height of 70 meters. Perfectly suited for operations against accumulations of military equipment.
There are also bombs like RBC-500U with PTAB-1M, also for destruction tanks and other armored vehicles, both on the march and in disguise in parking lots. This cassette contains 268 PTAB-1M combat elements with armor penetration up to 200 mm. And the improved RBC-500U PTAB has a mass of 520 kg, and carries 352 cumulative elements.
There are, in general, than welcome goodness.
That the US today decided to share part of its XNUMX million cluster munition arsenal is basically a problem for the US going forward. How the Ukrainian military will use the design bureaus transferred to them is a question in another direction.
In fact, one should not expect miraculous results, it is clear that the state aviation The Armed Forces of Ukraine simply will not make it possible to use design bureaus in large quantities from aircraft, therefore, most likely, they will bring artillery shells.
This is a separate topic, fortunately, there are now enough barrels of NATO calibers in Ukraine. According to the magazine owned by the US Department of Defense, which is called "Armor", we are talking about the supply of 155-millimeter caliber shells. Each such artillery shell contains 88 submunitions, and each submunition, in turn, has an expelling charge and a charge of fragments, the radius of which is about 10 meters.
In other words, depending on the dispersion, one such cluster projectile can mow down with fragments the territory of 3-4 football fields. Very unpleasant for the front line, deadly for residential development, especially if the explosion occurred at a height of 15-25 meters.
It is possible that 105-mm shells will also be supplied. They have fewer combat elements, but otherwise they are almost as good as their older comrades.
Will these deliveries become a big problem for the Russian troops? We'll see. Not everything that comes from the other side of the world becomes a "wonder weapon".
Information