Britain Scraps Dumb Cluster Munitions

, Britain will withdraw its stock of dumb cluster munitions with immediate effect, Secretary of State for Defence, Des Browne announced today. 
 
From now on our Armed Forces will only use cluster munitions which have features like self-destruct mechanisms which reduce the risk of harm to civilians. This means we will immediately cease to use the RBL 755 aerial delivered cluster munition and the Multi launch Rocket System M26 munition. In total we will dispose of over 28 million sub munitions. 
 
Des Browne said: 
 
“It is our duty to make sure our forces have the equipment they need to do the job we ask of them. At the same time, we should strive to reduce civilian casualties to the minimum. Military commanders are first to point out that modern conflicts are in large part about winning hearts and minds. 
 
“This is an important decision. We are doing this because it is the right thing to do – but we hope that other countries will now follow suit.” 
 
At the Conference on Certain Conventional Weapons in November, and at the Norwegian Initiative Conference in Oslo this February, the UK has led international efforts to reduce the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions. Today we are going one step further by announcing that we are the first major world power to stop using dumb cluster munitions. 
 
There are two types of 'dumb' cluster munitions currently used by the UK both of which will be immediately disposed of. 
 
These are the RBL 755 aerial delivered cluster munition and the Multi launch Rocket System M26 munition. These have either no target discrimination capability or a self-destruction, self-neutralisation or self-deactivation capability. In total 28 million sub munitions will be disposed of. 
 
Des Browne said in a statement to Parliament: 
 
“Cluster munitions are legal weapons which have a valid role in modern warfare, particularly against an array of military targets in a defined area. However, they have also given rise to humanitarian concerns because they disperse sub-munitions over an area and those sub-munitions can have a high failure rate. Some cluster munitions address these concerns including through inbuilt self-destructing or self-deactivating mechanisms, reducing the risk of harm to civilians. Dumb cluster munitions do not. 
 
“The types of cluster munitions we intend to retain are legitimate weapons with significant military value which, as a result of mitigating features, is not outweighed by humanitarian factors. As with all weapons, our forces' use of them will remain regulated by rules of engagement and internal scrutiny procedures designed to adhere to international law and reflect humanitarian values.”  
 
Background Information 
1. The MoD will withdraw RBL 755 aerial-delivered cluster munitions, and the Multi Launch Rocket System M26 munitions from service with immediate effect. The MLRS M26 should not be confused with the guided MLRS which is being deployed to Afghanistan but is not a cluster munition. 
 
2. The use of our remaining cluster munitions as with all our weapons will continue to be regulated by rules of engagement and internal scrutiny procedures designed to adhere to international law and reflect humanitarian values. 
 
3. We will dispose of our stockpiles of RBL 755 and MLRS M26. There are 43,200 MLRS M26 rockets that must be disposed of. Each rocket has 644 sub munitions, equals 27,820,800 sub munitions that must be disposed). There are 3,650 RBL dispensers that must be disposed of. Each dispenser has 147 sub munitions, equals 536,550 sub munitions that must be disposed.