Cluster Ammunition Use in Afghanistan

March 9, 2009

According to this Marine Corp Times report, the U.S. has now stationed HIMARS artillery systems in Afghanistan.

Its range can exceed 40 miles, and the rockets, guided by a Global Positioning System, are accurate to within 26 feet.

“It’s like a scalpel versus a butcher knife,” Delgado said.

…
The battery, whose members are based in El Paso, Texas, deployed to Helmand province in support of Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force — Afghanistan. The unit is tasked with targeting “higher value” targets, Delgado said.

Hmm – the system may indeed be "accurate to within 26 feet". But what does that mean?

HIMARS the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System

is the newest member of the multiple launch rocket System (MLRS) family. HIMARS is a highly-mobile artillery rocket system offering the firepower of MLRS on a wheeled chassis.
…
In addition to the standard MLRS round, HIMARS is capable of launching the entire MLRS family of munitions, …

So what is MLRS family of munitions?

The M270 system can fire MFOM, MLRS Family Of Munition rockets and artillery missiles, which are manufactured and used by a number of countries. These include:

M26 (United States): Rocket with 644 M77 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM) sub-munitions, range of 23 km.

M26A1 (United States): Extended Range Rocket (ERR), with range of 45 km and using improved M85 submunitions.

M26A2 (United States): As M26A1, but using M77 submunitions.
* M27 (United States): Completely inert training Launch Pod/Container to allow full loading cycle training.

M28 (United States): Training rocket. M26 with three ballast containers and three smoke marking containers in place of submunition payload.

M28A1 (United States): Reduced Range Practice Rocket (RRPR) with blunt nose. Range reduced to 9 km.

XM29 (United States): Rocket with Sense and Destroy Armor (SADARM) submunitions. Not standardized.

M30 (United States): Guided MLRS (GMLRS). A precision guided rocket, range over 60 km, in pre-production, with a standard load of 404 M85 submunitions.

…

All reports I find about U.S. ammunition for the HIMARS system and the MRLS rockets is about a "submunition" (even chemical) distributing systems, i.e. rockets that releases a cluster of small bomblets around their target area.

That is the definition of a cluster bombs deemed illegal by many of countries.

There were some development of a GPS guided MLRS warhead which could probably fit the above quotation from Marine regarding precision.

First deliveries of a unitary variant of GMLRS, with a single 81.6kg (180lb) warhead and a range of up to 70km were in May 2005.

180 lbs of modern explosives going up in any place it has reached "accurate to within 26 feet" will have a much bigger destructive radius than those 26 feet.

So what the U.S. is fielding in Afghanistan with the HIMARS is either a cluster bomb distribution system for indiscriminate 'territory denial' (don't dare to go to the loo) or a quite imprecise big warhead weapon that will take out many more civilians than militant targets when applied.

The civilians in Afghanistan will be hurt much more by such a system than the resistance fighters. In the end it will accelerate the defeat the U.S. and its appendices will rake in in that country.

Posted by b on March 9, 2009 at 22:10 UTC | Permalink

Comments

b, are you familiar with the weapon discussed here, something used in Gaza?

An unidentified weapon packed with strange “cube shaped shrapnel” killed or wounded civilians in the recent Gaza war, according to a new report from Amnesty International.
SNIP
One likely candidate is the Spike missile, made by the Israeli company Rafael (not to be confused with the U.S. Navy’s Spike missile we featured previously) . Originally designed as an anti-tank missile, it is comes in several versions — including a man-portable one and a vehicle-mounted version. It has also been shown fitted to the Israeli Heron drone. A naval version is featured in this video, being used against targets in Gaza.
SNIP
…a missile which hits the ground almost vertically after the pop-up, leaving a narrow deep hole as described, and spraying the area with small cubic shrapnel. This is not some specific Israeli invention and it is far from the only nation armed with this type of weapon. It’s really just another version of Henry Shrapnel’s bursting ammunition which has been increasing casualties for over two hundred years. But unless it gets banned like nerve gas and dumdum bullets it will be very much a part of warfare for more centuries to come.
Perhaps what is more alarming is the number of civilian deaths that Amnesty documents related to the new weapon. This type of ultra-precise strike capability is supposed to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties. But, as with the “focused lethality” DIME weapon, this does not seem to be happening. So we turn once again to Garlasco’s comment, from an earlier conflict:
“It is unfortunate that these weapons are being developed specifically for use in densely populated areas which may negate the intended effect.”

Posted by: jawbone | Mar 10 2009 1:39 utc | 1

It seems people on the ground in Gaza are finding lots of ugly things done by the IDF. Like setting up mines in houses to destroy them.
It also seems that the US picks up on the tactics the Israelis use. Sickening.

Posted by: jawbone | Mar 10 2009 1:56 utc | 2

Ahhh, the sound of munitions… Such a lovely sound, such a lovely song, reminds one of, well, reminds one of the beautiful lilt of a cash register…
Wait! I forgot, The song of songs, and every song begins and ends with a final note…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 10 2009 5:14 utc | 3

@jawbone, et al…,
Buy my missiles!

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 10 2009 5:17 utc | 4

Just noticed that the U.S. used these cluster ammunition in 2007
Tora Bora: Coalition launches fierce new anti-Taliban offensive

Qari Sajad, a purported spokesman for the local Taliban splinter faction, The Tora Bora Military Front, denied his group sustained any casualties saying the 34 people who perished in the strikes were ordinary citizens. Neither claim can be independently verified due to the remote and inexplicable danger present in the area.
Fighting has raged in the Pachir Wa Agam and Khogyani districts of Nangarhar province since the assault began nearly three days ago. The ferocious combat has also sent dozens of families fleeing the area for a safer environment as the ensuing combat is expected to last throughout the week.
Advanced US missiles, known as The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), are believed to have been used against fortified mountain positions occupied by the militants. The missiles are able to travel between 32 and 45Km depending on which model is used and an onboard GPS computer system guides the projectiles to their predetermined target location. At least 2 air strikes were also reported to have destroyed militants’ positions in the mountains.

Posted by: b | Mar 10 2009 6:48 utc | 5

As always:
All the bombs are in the hands of terrorists

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Mar 10 2009 6:56 utc | 6

Unconfirmed: Hizb-e-Islami claim killing 19 US troops in Afghanistan

KABUL: Hizb-e-Islami Monday claimed killing 19 US troops in Lughman province of Afghanistan.
The organization of former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Khan attacked a convoy of US soldiers in Tehsil Shang of Lughman province, killing 12 troops.
Three US tanks were also destroyed in the clash which continued for two hours.
The militants of Hizb-e-Islami also killed 7 US troops in district Burqi of Logar province when they were searching houses.

Posted by: b | Mar 10 2009 7:12 utc | 7

The irony is that HIMAR in Arabic mean donkey. As is US foreign policy is as dumb as a HIMAR

Posted by: ndahi | Mar 10 2009 8:37 utc | 8

Afghanistan – our playground.
what else?

Posted by: beq | Mar 10 2009 10:58 utc | 9

B
For some reason the script is tiny, and unreadable in many posts on this site. How can this be corrected please?
By the way I am a big fan of your blog. Thank you very much for all your effort and the wonderful forum you present:.

Posted by: eas | Mar 10 2009 13:16 utc | 10

eas, there should be a view function for your browser (on my mac it is on the top, click zoom in. the small text is from the blockquotes from news articles,(a posting option right above the comment box are the html tags).

Posted by: annie | Mar 10 2009 13:41 utc | 11

an onboard GPS computer system guides the projectiles to their predetermined target location
‘chaser’ weapons

Posted by: annie | Mar 10 2009 13:44 utc | 12

@eas – looks normal to me in Firefox and IE.

Posted by: b | Mar 10 2009 15:06 utc | 13

Is this what they’re talking about? (watch at the 0:25 point)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgzIM-9lfA&playnext_from=PL&feature=PlayList&p=601A431CBFE90348&playnext=1&index=1
…or if you don’t want to bother, it’s the trailer for ‘Ironman’ and one of the movie’s first special effects sequence is a super-duper, point-and-obliterate missile system being demonstrated by the main character, munitions magnate and high-flying playboy Tony Stark (who becomes ‘Ironman’ after he’s captured by turbaned badguys–er, make that, ‘evil doers’. We are still fighting ‘evil doers’, right?)
Convenient the way movies seem to sorta be in synch with American militarism, eh?

Posted by: Schneb | Mar 10 2009 18:51 utc | 14

As good a Muslim primer as you’re going to find on distinctions of infidel, Taliban version, and why faith-based initiatives by the West (or bad faith, as your politics decide) are nevertheless rendered moot in these Days of Prophecies of the return of Shekinah (pronounced “shock and awe”), which left the Temple and city of Jerusalem in the days of Ezekiel, and was repeated in Zechariah, again by the Southern Baptists and the Knight Riders of KKK, and that’s what we’ve come back to, swords and scimitars. Bury the hatchet, or bite the bullet. Get ready for a Revolution.

Posted by: Ali Wallaa | Mar 11 2009 4:27 utc | 15

Back to Main