M85 Further Reading

 The UK Stocked M85 Cluster Munition – Does it Cause ‘Unacceptable Harm’ 

One of the key sticking points on the text of the Cluster Munition Ban treaty is that of definition and potential exceptions which would allow countries to retain stockpiles of certain cluster munitions. 

Some parties, including the UK, argue that not all cluster munitions cause ‘unacceptable harm’ to civilians. As these weapons have evolved, since their first recorded use during World War 2, they have been designed to be more efficient as tactical military weapons; some featuring self-destruct mechanisms which, governments claim, mean that they have a significantly lower failure rate than some older and less sophisticated bomblets.  

The UK government claims a failure rate of 0.74% for the M85 cluster bomblet, one of the two submunitions it currently reserves for use in combat. Yet this failure rate is subject to specific testing conditions and an assumption that certain duds are ‘non-hazardous’. 

A detailed study was undertaken by Norwegian People’s Aid in Lebanon where various models of cluster bomblets, including the M85, were dropped during the 34 day conflict with Israel in 2006. In an area in Southern Lebanon 3 sample sites where M85s had been deployed were analysed and, rather than finding a failure rate of less than 1%, the three sites had failures of 9.6%, 11.5% and 12.2%.  

In addition to these 3 cluster bombs that had successfully deployed their submunitions, there was one unit that had failed to release its payload which would have pushed the average failure rate up considerably, this data was, however excluded from the report. It should be noted however that a complete unit can still scatter many, if not all, of its payload (49 bomblets) over the immediate area of impact; it therefore remains a serious threat. 

So why is there so much disparity between these examples and the military test results? Military testing is generally undertaken under specific conditions; tests can be undertaken when weather is clear; the ammunition is in good condition; and the surface they are fired or dropped onto is likely to be a uniform hard surface. This environment rarely reflects combat conditions where munitions may: be old or transit-damaged; be affected by weather conditions; land on soft, sloping or wet surfaces; get cushioned or hooked on foliage; etc.  

Even if a failure rate of 1% was accepted as an accurate failure rate, the nature of cluster munitions means that high volumes of submunitions are scattered over a large area. In Lebanon in 2006, a 1% failure rate would still equate to 40,000 potentially lethal weapons littering ground and foliage, each one of which would have the capacity to kill or injure a civilian. With the same percentage assumption the failed munitions dropped in the 1991 Gulf War would amount to some 200,000. 

Although many forces may analyse both the immediate and longer term risks before deploying these munitions, there are many variable factors and differing statistics meaning  that only a total ban on these older munitions with unreliable mechanical fuzes will truly minimise the unacceptable harm to civilians.   

Click here to download the full NPA report.