Bunshot bomb – Wikipedia

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Bunch head of a Mgr-1 “Honest John” missile. The internal submunitations are M134

The bunch bombs O bunch ammunition ( cluster bomb ), they are bombs, generally released by aircraft or helicopters and sometimes with artillery, rockets and guided missiles, containing a certain number of submunitations: the bomblets , which, to the functioning of the main budget ( cluster ), are dispersed, according to different systems, at a distance.

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When the cluster It is released or brought to the objective, to a height desired according to the chosen system, it automatically opens to release the submunitations on an area of ​​variable extension depending on the share and speed or effect of ammunition. Almost all of these ammunition is designed to explode with the impact (with the ground, or against the target or, like the blue 114, to disperse carbon filaments during the fall). These devices are often equipped with small parachutes or other friction systems with the air, necessary to slow down the fall, allowing the ammunition to arm themselves and the plane that may have dispersed to move away safely.

In the past, some submunitations have been designed in the past (such as the PFM1 and the American dragontooth), but almost all of PFM1 and almost all is designed to work for the impact. The Ottawa Convention prohibits the use, use, design, trade and development of anti -repellent devices (terrestrial mines or traps), but several countries, such as USA, China, Russia and others, have not signed these agreements and They continue to use and produce such devices in all their forms.

Submunitions are a variant of the so -called area saturation weapons.

The types may vary: [first]

  • Anti -human: it is a small device containing high explosive and a metal casing, fragmentation;
  • Anti -tank: a bomb containing high explosive in special conformations that, guided by sensors, heads towards the armored vehicles present in the area and affects them with perforative newspapers or with small special ones full of quarries that explode with contact with a solid surface, perforing it.
  • Mixed: even small devices of small dimensions that can bring together different effects such as the projection of fragments, the perforation of armor and incendiary effects, are called Combined Effect Equips such as the Blu97 perforating American, with fragmentation and incendiary.

Examples of cluster bombs used largely are the Blu-97 and MK-118 Rockeye, the British Bl755 (arrived at the IV series), the French G66, the Soviet PFM1, the Soviet AO 2,5rt, the AO1Sch always Soviet or the Soviet AO1Sch or the New Chinese MZD-2 widespread on the land of the South Lebanon and Nord border of Israel. [2]

In particular, for the electrical lines, the submunitations release threads in conducting material (carbon fiber or fiberglass coated aluminum) which aim to short circuit the conductors of the lines in multiple points, in order to also make their reactivation difficult; One of these is the American CBU-94/B, consisting of 202 Blu-14/b submunitions. [ without source ]

These devices often do not explode with the impact with the ground, remaining partially underground and therefore invisible and very dangerous; Many producers of these devices declare percentages of malfunctions close to 5%, but during the last conflict in southern Lebanon for many of these devices it was calculated that the percentages have reached 25%, [3] With devastating effects on the unsuspecting and unaware civilian population, which has seen citrus crops, olives and bananas, on which the local economy is based, to become, after the fights, real mined fields.

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In Afghanistan we currently try to reclaim the PFM1 again, in jargon calls green parrots , inheritance of the Soviet-Afghan war of the eighties, which reaps numerous victims still today, in the civilian population. The submunitations have been the subject of various proposals for international moratoriums by many countries, including Italy, and international associations such as the International Red Cross, Handicap International [4] And the same UN.

Nations that signed the Wellington Declaration (on 1 June 2008) for the Convention on bunch bombs.

An international agreement was reached on 30 May 2008 for the ban of some types of bunch bombs. United States, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, Russia, Brazil, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia do not adhere, as well as various other smaller nations. [5] In November 2008, in view of the signing of the Convention on Campore ammunition (Oslo, from 2 to 4 December) [6] The European Parliament discussed the need to adopt the agreement in plenary [7] And he incited all the member countries of the European Union to join you.
The Italian Parliament definitively approved the bill (C. 4193 and Abb.) [8] which ratifies the Oslo Convention.

The UN Convention that banned the use of bunch bombs entered into force on 1 August 2010. With the ratification of Burkina Faso and Moldova, the minimum number (30 nations) was reached to allow the entry into force of the treaty, signed in Dublin on 30 May 2008.
Italy signed the agreement on December 3, 2008 in Oslo, but only ratified it on September 21, 2011 [9] .

Areas with significant quantities of unexploded submunitations [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Bi-amputati demonstrators, coming from Afghanistan and Ethiopia, to the Dublin Conference.

Other countries where bunch bombs were used [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

  1. ^ Detailed description of the type of weapon on GlobalSecurity.org
  2. ^ On November 26, 2012, a bunch bomb is released by a Mig hunt on a playing field in the village of Deir Al-Aesafir east of Damascus causing several victims
  3. ^ Lionel Beehner, The Campaign to Ban Cluster Bombs . are cfr.org , Council on Foreign Relations, 21 novembre 2006. URL consulted on February 17, 2020 .
  4. ^ ( IN ) Information on the Handicap International website
  5. ^ Bulpolo bombs from today outlaw – over 100 nations sign the agreement , La Repubblica, 30 May 2008. URL consulted on 12 December 2019 .
  6. ^ Signing Conference Website Filed On 16 December 2008 in the Internet Archive. last retrieved on 28 November 2008],
  7. ^ Enough with bunch bombs, enough with the killing of civilians Filed On April 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive. Published on the European Parliament website on November 19, 2008
  8. ^ Bill 4193 Ratification and execution of the Oslo Convention on the installation of the bunch ammunition, made in Dublin on May 30, 2008
  9. ^ UNTC . are Treaties.un.org . URL consulted on November 23, 2011 (archived by URL Original March 7, 2021) .
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